A Japanese writer, a cross-dressing director and an aging horror actor (whose star is in decline) team up with a rag tag crew of misfits in 1950s Hollywood to create a low budget horror film called The Graverobbers, while evading the gaze of the labor unions and the House Un-American Activities Committee. Philip Kansatsu moves to Hollywood to become a screenwriter while making a living as a cab driver.

He meets his favorite horror actor, Lajos Borgo, who is in recovery for his opium addiction. Phil thinks his horror script The Graveroobbers would be a perfect comeback film for Borgo.

He hooks up with a cross dressing skid row director named Woody Tucker and a Communist sympathizing producer, Salty Benson, to make the movie, but only on the condition that he makes sure Borgo is on the set and ready t work each day of the production. But the HUAC has its eyes on Benson, and Harry Dick, a stool pigeon for the Screen Actors' Guild, is eager to shut the non-union production down.

Can they finish their grindhouse epic before The Man shuts them down? The reader will find a lot of laughs before that question is answered. .