Snippets of Greta Garbo movies interspersed with provincial gigs of girls resembling Garbo. The film begins with one of the aspirants reading an issue of the newspaper Stockholms-Tidningen.

A long time ago in a distant fairy tale countryside, a young girl leads her little brother into a dark wood in desperate search of food and work, only to stumble upon a nexus of terrifying evil.

The world is closing in on Greta Driscoll. On the cusp of turning fifteen she can't bear to leave her childhood, it contains all the things that give her comfort in this incomprehensible new world. She floats in a bubble of loserdom with her only friend Elliott, until her parents throw her a surprise 15th birthday party and she's flung into a parallel place; a world that's weirdly erotic, a little bit violent and thoroughly ludicrous - only there can she find herself.

When New York accountant Gilbert Rolfe finds out his mother has a brain tumor, he is devastated. His incorrigible mother, Estelle, has one last wish: to meet the great Greta Garbo. Gilbert, wanting to do this last thing for her, sets out on a wild goose chase through the streets of New York City to track down the iconic star, at the expense of his personal life and much to the chagrin of his wife, Lisa. Can he find Garbo before it's too late?

Jimmy Bolt, a singer and dancer (and occasionally as a waiter) works at a varieté. The man may be talented, but he’s not exactly a big success, and things get complicated when a young orphan girl falls in love with the voice of another singer but then mistakes Bolt for him…