In this film that sends up the foibles of filmmaking, a standard crew of actors, stage-hands, director, writers, producers, and others are gathered for the filming of a 45-second automobile commercial. Each role embodies an archetype (the harried director who has a deadline to meet, the Scrooge production manager who has a budget to meet, and the writers who are above these mundane concerns), and these personalities drive the working actors over the edge until they decide to lock them up and do their own thing -- happiness can be just around the corner if you are in the driver's seat. Hopefully, the actors will be able to bow out before the police catch on to the situation.

In the 17th century, under Louis XIII, the policy of Cardinal de Richelieu aimed at the definitive establishment of a monarchic power, and gave rise to a struggle against the great feudal lords, who favored a weak central power. Numerous conspiracies against the Cardinal were led by the high nobility. The one led by Henri Coiffier de Ruzé d'Effiat, marquis de Cinq-Mars, was the last and most famous of them.