San Fernando Valley, 1977. Jack Horner is a renowned director of porn, all his movies financed by "Colonel" James. He has his regular stable of cast and crew, most who have issues in their lives. They include: actress Amber Waves, who acts as the mother figure to the group in the absence of being a real mother to her biological son, about who she has told no one in her porn circle; actor Reed Rothchild, who wants to live up to his on-screen alpha male status; actor Buck Swope, who works as a stereo salesman on the side and whose country & western style seems to be problematic in getting ahead; actress Rollergirl, a high school drop-out who never takes off her skates; and assistant director "Little" Bill, whose marriage is threatened by his wife being both a nymphomaniac and an exhibitionist. Their collective lives are punctuated by excess in everything, whether it be sex, cocaine use, or the need to amass flashy material possessions. Into their lives comes Eddie Adams, a seventeen year old high school dropout from a dysfunctional family in Torrance. Eddie, who renames himself Dirk Diggler, is Jack's latest discovery, and whose success in the industry is largely predicated on being well-endowed. Because of the validation he receives for the first time in his life, Dirk is easy prey to be sucked into the excesses of the group. Although largely an innocent beyond the few dollars previously earned here and there by showing his penis to anyone who would pay, Dirk also changes as a person as he displays more and more bravado in relation to the amount of validation he receives. The next few years lead to changes in the group, not only because of changes in technology, namely the advent of video, but as the excesses in their lives start to take their toll, and as their association with the business may affect what their post-porn life will look like.