- Uh oh. There's been a murder. We're at a mansion on Sunset Boulevard and we see the dead body floating in a pool as the police arrive.
- Through voiceover, a narrator tells us that we'll get a distorted version of the facts from the Hollywood gossip columnists, but he'll tell us the true story.
- The murder victim, he says, is a B-movie screenwriter and he is floating in the pool of a famous old-time star.
- The narrator then takes us back six months earlier, and starts speaking in the first person.
- We realize that he is actually the dead man, Joe Gillis. Well, no wonder he knows what really went down.
- Back then, he was going through a tough time in his little apartment in L.A. The studios weren't giving him work and he was grinding out two original stories a week—but they weren't selling. He sits alone, typing.
- Two repo men knock on the door demanding his car and the keys. Why? 'Cause Joe's behind on his payments and is due to lose his vehicle. He lies and claims he let a friend take it up to Palm Springs.
- The men leave, and Joe goes to the lots behind a shoeshine hut where he keeps his car hidden. He drives to Paramount Studios, where he plans on trying to pitch one of his stories to a producer named Sheldrake.
- At Paramount, he tells Sheldrake that the story is about a shortstop who gets mixed up with gangsters—they try to get him to help throw the World Series. He also talks about the (real) actors he thinks would be good for it. This does not sound promising.
- Betty Schaefer, a script reader, enters the office and tells him she thinks that Joe Gillis's screenplay is terrible. She doesn't realize that Joe is present, and it's exactly as awkward as it sounds.
- Betty's pretty embarrassed when she realizes that Joe is right there, and they argue about the script. It's not so bad, right?
- She leaves, and Sheldrake and Joe discuss more possibilities for the script and other jobs—but he's got nothing for Joe—no jobs, no money,
- Joe asks Sheldrake for a loan, but Sheldrake says he can't help him.