David Riley, once the assistant prop-master of the Metropolitan Opera, enters his retirement home’s talent show in a last-ditch effort for artistic immortality. But rehearsals for his five-minute dramatic rendition of Wagner’s Ring Cycle aren’t going well. David convinces himself that a prop helmet he created forty years ago can save his production. He quickly enlists the help of his son, Tom, and young grandson, Richie, to break into the vaults of the Met and steal the helmet. Richie, already suspicious of his grandfather, has a more basic concern: distinguishing real from imaginary. During their quest for the ‘magic’ helmet, Richie connects with his grandfather and discovers that, on the stage, life can be lived in a fantastical gray zone between memories and dreams.