An extrapolation from real events in the life of James Whale, who directed the Universal Pictures horror classics "Frankenstein" and "The Bride of Frankenstein," and died in an apparent suicide in a Hollywood pool in 1957. As the drama unfolds, Whale, who has suffered a stroke, becomes a melancholy recluse enlivening the end of his days by spinning out fantasies around the handsome young gardener, Clayton Boone, who has suddenly appeared in his life. Whale begins to stage a plot with Boone at its center--not a plot of seduction, but something far more complex, leading both men on a journey toward mutual understanding and self-discovery.