The producer in question is Viktor Taransky (played by Al Pacino), who has had a string of box office failures and is on the brink of losing his career. His leading lady, Nicola Anders (Winona Ryder), is difficult to work with and quits the film they are working on, sending Viktor into a panic.
In a desperate bid to salvage his film, Viktor turns to a programmer named Hank Aleno (Elias Koteas) who introduces him to a revolutionary new technology that allows him to create a completely computer-generated actress named Simone. Viktor uses Simone to complete his film, and to his surprise, she becomes an overnight sensation, almost instantly making him a household name.
As Simone's fame grows, Viktor becomes increasingly reliant on her and has to keep up the illusion that she is a real person. However, as the lines between reality and fiction begin to blur, Viktor becomes more and more isolated from the world around him.
Meanwhile, investigative journalist Max Sayer (Pruitt Taylor Vince) begins to suspect that Simone isn't who she appears to be and sets out to uncover the truth, threatening to expose Viktor's career and his own reality.
The film touches on themes of celebrity culture, the blurred line between reality and fiction, and the power of technology to create artificial beings that are almost indistinguishable from the real thing.