In early-1950s Hollywood, obscure screenplay-writer Joe Gillis is unable to sell his work to the studios, is full of debts and thinking of returning to his hometown to work in an office. While trying to escape from his creditors, he has a flat tire and parks his car in a decadent mansion in Sunset Boulevard. He meets the owner and former silent-movie star Norma Desmond, who lives alone with her butler and driver Max Von Mayerling. Norma is demented and believes she will return to the cinema industry, and is protected and isolated from the world by Max, who was her director and husband in the past and still loves her. Norma proposes Joe to move to the mansion and help her in writing a screenplay for her comeback to the cinema, and the small-time writer becomes her lover and gigolo. When Joe falls in love with young aspiring writer Betty Schaefer, Norma becomes jealous and completely insane and her madness leads to a tragic end.