Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) is a confused L.A. screenwriter overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy, sexual frustration, self-loathing — and by the screenwriting ambitions of his freeloading twin brother Donald (also Nicolas Cage). While struggling to adapt "The Orchid Thief," by Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep), Kaufman's life spins from pathetic to bizarre. The lives of Kaufman, Orlean and John Laroche (Chris Cooper), the orchid poacher and the subject of Orlean's book, become strangely intertwined as each one's search for passion collides with the others'.