Plot
Havoc is wrought on the inhabitants of a small New England town by a troubled film production. After Bob Barrenger, the leading man's penchant for underage girls gets them banished from their New Hampshire location, the crew moves to the small town of Waterford, Vermont to finish shooting The Old Mill.
As its title suggests, the film depends on the presence of a genuine mill, something the town is reported to possess. Unfortunately, with only days before principal photography begins, it becomes apparent that the mill in fact burned down decades ago. Unfazed, the film's director, Walt Price, places his faith in the ability of first-time screenwriter Joseph Turner White to alter the script. What he doesn't count on is White's apparently bottomless reserve of angst-fueled writer's block. A local bookseller, Annie Black, tries to provide White with inspiration.
The film's leading lady, Claire Wellesley, refuses to do her contracted nude scene unless she's paid an additional $800,000, while the foreign cinematographer offends the locals by messing with a historic firehouse. Meanwhile, powerful movie producer Marty Rossen comes to town to help Price with the ensuing mess. Barrenger dallies with Carla, a crafty local teen.
Everything comes to a head after Barrenger and Carla are injured in a car crash. White, the only witness, is faced with a moral dilemma over whether to reveal what he saw, while his relationship with Annie deepens.
Annie arranges a sham deposition on one of the film's sets, during which White, believing the proceeding to be genuine, falsely denies having witnessed Carla in Barrenger's car. Distraught over having perjured himself, White decides to leave Waterford. At the train station, he learns that the town's courthouse burned down in 1960 and encounters the judge arriving to conduct the actual deposition. Realizing that Annie had staged the earlier proceeding, White returns and announces his intention to testify truthfully. But before White can testify, Rossen uses the $800,000 originally intended for Wellesley to pay off prosecutor Doug Mackenzie, who drops the case. The judge leaves to play golf, while White and Annie begin a relationship and the production proceeds with the film, retitled The Fires of Home.
