Five aspiring writers enter a contest to have their original stories published by Thrilling Pulp Magazine, an infamous if somewhat disreputable magazine that specializes in trashy disposable fiction.    

As each of the five writers compose their stories, they are enacted by the other four.  The five stories include “A Bullet for Budd” – a noir crime thriller, “Brain Thieves from the Fourth Dimension” – a science fiction drama, “Dust-Up at Desperate Sands” – A Western Saga, “Captain Slaughter and the Revenge of Amorphia” – a British espionage tale, and “Prescription Romance” a medical romance. 

As the five stories merge and blend, the writers slowly begin to realize that they themselves have become the focus of someone else’s original pulp novel.