Jacoby Cass, struggling actor and playwright, creates theater performances audiences can step inside of and even participate in. His latest work reenacts the 1890 murder of a hotel owner, set within the very same now-rotting hotel where it took place decades ago. In the year 2060, technology is so advanced that his audiences, who follow the actors around their aging performance space, can be convinced with sensors and temperature adjusters of the presence of ghosts.

Cass is determined that this play will salvage his toppling career. However, his crew is combative and untrustworthy, from cutthroat stage director Rosalin to desperate wannabe actress Sonya, and two stars hiding their secret love affair. Additionally, his writing is flawed; the play's first act, the murder of Cass's character, rolls smoothly into the second act, the murder of a homosexual man within the same building in the 1920s. But there's no third act, and as performances drag on with fewer and fewer audience members, Cass knows it'll never succeed without a shocking final twist.

Rosalin decides to create a third disaster in real life that they can build their third act upon. She approaches Sonya and tells her it's time for her budding stage career to come to an end. Sonya must commit suicide, bringing the headlines back to their failing performance and ensuring the show goes on.

However, audiences on their final night are horrified to discover Sonya stabbing Rosalin to death. She refuses to die, she shouts, as the police drag her from the building, but the show must go on.

Cass's creation is booked out for the next six months. The two actors in love begin appearing publicly as a couple, and they never know how to reply when they are asked if the hotel is truly haunted.