In Hollywood on the eve of World War II, Barton Fink, the New York playwright, arrives to work as a screenwriter. He is assigned a low-brow wrestling movie, and quickly develops writer's block, which is aggravated by the seedy hotel he is staying in and his aggressively jovial neighbor, Charlie. Barton's struggle to create a truly great screenplay leads from the strange and unproductive to the terrifying and surreal.