King, living in Rome churning out one noir book after another, is offered an abnormally large sum to ghostwrite the autobiography of a mystery celebrity. The intrigued King agrees and is transported to a remote island (Malta, where the entire film was shot) where he meets his subject, Preston Gilbert (Mickey Rooney), a one-time movie star known for playing gangsters and notorious for hanging out with real-life mobsters off the set. Now dying of cancer, Gilbert wants King to jot down his life story before he dies. However, the star is murdered at a party, leaving King with no conclusion to his tale. Playing detective like the heroes of his stories, King pieces together the mystery.
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