Jonas Willard is directing "King Lear," adapted for the first time to the computerized drama stage, upon which technology is utilized to push the boundaries of traditional theater, with voice recorders and backgrounds creating visual, auditory, and subliminal effects. A year later, he is world-famous, the play having been a massive success for being the first serious drama to be created in the compu-drama style.
Here, a science fiction author named Gregory Laborian approaches him and asks him to adapt his novel, "Three in One," into a compu-drama. Willard is hesitant, but Laborian offers him payment in real gold, and Willard cannot resist. He reads Laborian's novel and is confused, upset by the lack of descriptive detail that he could use to create visuals. He meets with Laborian, who explains that that is the point, for the reader to fill in the details themselves, something that only works in writing and not in drama. Willard's hesitation prompts Laborian to say that he will pay Willard in advance, but in electronic payment, and then if the work is satisfactory, he will exchange the money for gold payment.
Working through the details, Laborian finds himself finally able to fill in the visuals and messaging from his own imagination, from the way that he had pictured the work in his head. The first few days of shooting are a disaster, of course. Many things need to be changed, smoothed out, reworked. Laborian is there, watching quietly, and Willard allows him to give a suggestion, one that Willard actually likes—to give the triple being a head. The next day, Willard himself has come up with a brilliant idea of how to convey the head, by giving it a top hat.
Everyone, especially Willard, becomes invested in the work. At the end of the shooting, they watch it back, and Willard, exhausted, thinks that he has put too much of himself into it, and has no concept of how good it is. The crew say that it's almost as good as King Lear, but Willard doesn't believe them, seeing Laborian's blank face. He meets with Laborian in his office, where Laborian tells him he thinks that this is even better than King Lear, because Willard was able to put himself into the work, to develop weaker characters and story into something unique. Laborian brings out the gold, and Willard is awed. But after saying that Laborian had pushed Willard beyond his artistic talents, he refuses the gold.