Harry Stone (Danny Aiello), a formerly top notch director, has had three disastrous movies in a row. Facing dismissal from the top perch of Hollywood and financial ruin from back taxes, he is forced to take on a very commercial and, he believes, ridiculous movie. Now as he faces the film's release and, he believes, another total flop which will complete his ruin, he meets up with his son and daughter and his former wives (which includes Dyan Cannon) to examine his life and his future. The film examines the turmoil a movie director goes through with a film release. His agent (Jerry Stiller) assures him that he has a hit, while those around him wince (as does the audience) at the thought of the movie within the movie. The movie is "The Pickle", a supposedly social satire where a bunch of kids from Kansas take vegetables into space via a super cucumber and land on an Earth-like planet where everyone lives only on beef and die at age 49. As shown in the excerpts of the film, Little Richard stars as the President of the planet who has 6 months to live, Ally Sheedy heads up the Kansas contingent, and Griffin Dunne is the President's aide who falls in love with Sheedy.