Richard is a writer who travels from New York City to Detroit, Michigan to complete an overdue novel. Although he is under increasing pressure from his publisher, Richard’s daydreaming is preventing him from completing the story. A month into his trip he is encouraged by his best friend, Karl, to take on the persona of one of his characters in order to come up with an exciting novel to submit to his publisher. Richard runs into a major problem when he meets a beautiful Brazilian woman named Alexandra and lies to her about being a high-roller while he’s “in character.” He finds himself in the middle of a gambling ring run by local gangsters and is forced to “Be Somebody” else in order to get himself out of the situation, but he quickly learns that he isn’t the only unfortunate soul in the cross-hairs of a local syndicate.