Paul Giamatti stars as himself, agonizing over his interpretation of Uncle Vanya. Paralyzed by anxiety, he stumbles upon a solution via a New Yorker article about a high tech company promising to alleviate suffering by extracting souls. Giamatti enlists their service only to discover that his soul is the shape and size of a chickpea. His intention is to reinstate it once he survives the performance but complications ensue when a mysterious, soul trafficking mule borrows Giamatti s stored soul for an ambitious, but unfortunately talentless, Russian soap opera actress