Arthur Tillman (Enver Gjokaj) has a different approach to storytelling—for him, his characters are alive. No, not that crap about his characters being alive in his heart and through his actions. His characters are actually alive—they interact with him on a daily basis, give him advice, (from what to wear, what to say during interviews, to whether or not he should put salt in his salad) and have feelings. At first, Arthur’s literary agent had considered forcing the young writer to go see a psychiatrist, but shelved the idea once it became apparent that Arthur’s novel could be turned into a series and would be a certified cash cow.

Captain Jackson (Hugh Laurie) and Baroness Waverly (Olivia Williams) have accompanied Arthur through thick and thin during the past ten years, but has grown bored with the suspenseful Edwardian-era life that Arthur has put them in. Captain Jackson likes to explore the 1960s while Baroness Waverly would like to be a computer terrorizing a space exploration on Jupiter in the year 2425 (her favorite movie is Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey). They've gone partly on strike— they still appear to Arthur, still give him advice on the mundane happenstances of his life, but would be particularly unhelpful on the creative front.

Now suffering from an epic writer’s block and the deadline looming for his new novel, Arthur tries different ways to make the Captain and the Baroness cooperate. It’s not until Arthur meets the ridiculous, over-the-top, faded-to-obscurity, teacher-to-the-stars, actress Rosanna Sutton (Kristin Scott Thomas) in acting class does Captain Jackson and Baroness Waverly start obliging Arthur.

Unfortunately, adding Rosanna to the mix proves to be too much crazy for Arthur to handle. With Captain Jackson's death wishes, Baroness Waverly's insistence of adding in science fiction, Rosanna's insistence on rather extreme character development and the continuous plot changes, will Arthur be able to write his novel in three weeks?