影片主角是一个78岁的英国著名作家，他身患重病却仍然酗酒成性，口不择言。夜晚不时陷于噩梦的缠绕中，令他想入非非，一边琢磨着他最后一部作品的情节构思，一边忆起,追忆,回想,缅怀着他的往事。于是，噩梦、他的想象加上往事的忆起,追忆,回想,缅怀相互混淆在一起，共同构成了他作品的故事框架。
　　影片将文学创作的过程跟幻想、恼怒,动怒,愤怒,气恼,动怒,震怒,暴怒等融为一体，制造了一个精致的弗洛伊德哑谜。这是雷奈的第一部用英语拍摄的影片。剧本比较拗口罗嗦，有较重的文学味，影片被认为是雷奈的杰作，博加德的演出尤为精湛，但一般观众可能会觉得单调乏味。
　　Clive Langham (Sir John Gielgud) spends one tormenting night in his bed suffering from health problems and thinking up a story based on his relatives. He is a bitter man and he shows, through flashbacks, how spiteful, conniving and treacherous his family is. But is this how they really are or is it his own vindictive slant on things?

　　过气明星霍华德•史本斯（山姆•夏普德 饰）无法接受自己不在风光的事实，花甲之年的他竟然酗酒，吸毒，日常,生存,生计,日子糜烂，每天在片场职业,事业,工作岗位,职责都提不起劲来。这时候他想到了自己家乡里的妈妈,母亲大人,娘亲,老妈妈，他便决意放下自己的职业,事业,工作岗位,职责回到了妈妈,母亲大人,娘亲,老妈妈身边。那里同时有个消息在等着他，消息使他的日常,生存,生计,日子一下子起了变化，变得光亮起来——老妈妈,母亲大人,娘亲,老妈妈告诉他原来是有一对儿女的。
　　正当他打算准备着搜寻,寻觅,查找,探寻自己的儿女的时候，私家侦探萨特（蒂姆•罗斯 饰）执意要把他带回霍华德职业,事业,工作岗位,职责的片场。但霍华德早已决心,打算,计划,准备要搜寻,寻觅,查找,探寻自己的儿女了，便再次自片场出走。
　　他找到了朝思日想的孩子,男孩,少年,男童厄尔，但孩子,男孩,少年,男童拒绝承认这名爸爸,父亲大人,爹爹,老父亲。低落不已的霍尔德更遇到了少女斯琪，更因为她的出现发展出一个惊人的场面。

Synopsis                                    
                               　　A sudden gunshot destroys the dream of two lovers. The fate of Orpheus and Eurydice is a cruel one. On their wedding day, her soul is kidnapped and taken down into the Netherworld. Under a metaphysical sky Charon, the taxi driver, waits for the crime to be committed.                                    
                               　　COMMENTARY                                    
                               　　The movie is an opera-musical with an immersive and transmedial language. The myth is transposed into the contemporary age: Charon is a taxi driver and we go from Paris half under water to the stage of the Teatro Regio in Turin, in a play of musical references that range from Puccini to Händel, from Verdi to Gluck, from Vivaldi to Frankie Goes to Hollywood. And the images fuse words, lyric opera, fashion and the visual arts, between the real and the virtual.                                    
                               　　DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT                                    
                               　　We created an unexpected encounter between acting and lyric opera, between pop, special effects and images filled with symbolism. Bringing into a cast of extraordinary actors such as Vincent Cassel, Fanny Ardant and Rossy De Palma two young artists selected among hundreds of lyric opera singers: Valentino Buzza and Mariam Battistelli.