When a crooked Hollywood director announces his next big premiere, aspiring filmmaker Millie Blomquist is shocked to learn that he's stolen her script.

Millie uses her college savings to attend a summer program at the Manhattan Movie Academy, run by her favorite director, Ricky O'Naire, whose short-film contest promises the winner a Hollywood production. But before she can finish her film, a tribute to her late father, O'Naire is convicted of embezzlement and the academy closes. Six months later, slogging through her senior year in Fargo, North Dakota, Millie sees a preview for O'Naire's comeback film--a full-length version of her summer-camp short. Outraged, she reunites a diverse trio of academy students and convinces them to steal O'Naire's film just days ahead of its high-profile premiere.

Putting movie techniques into practice, they pull off the heist in extravagant fashion, but when a manipulative femme fatale uncovers their plan to collect ransom, it's not long before a gang of quirky criminals cut in on the action, threatening Millie's life and stumbling upon an ominous connection to her father.

With the stakes now higher than ever imagined, Millie has no choice but to lead this bizarre cast through an electrifying series of moves and countermoves that result in an outcome not even Hollywood could see coming.