Norma Desmond was a Hollywood star of the silent movie, but since the introduction of the sound film her glorious days are over. Retired, she lives with her butler Max von Mayerling in her luxury villa on Sunset Boulevard and is waiting for her big comeback. When penniless screenwriter Joe Gillis strays onto her estate, she scents her chance and convinces him to revise her self-written screenplay "Salomé". Joe moves in with Norma and becomes more and more dependent on her. When he tries to free himself from her delusion and confronts her with the unsparing truth, disaster takes its course ...