The renowned playwright and director James Lapine casually meets the 86-year-old Rose Styron – poet, journalist, human rights activist, and widow of the famed author William Styron – and is promptly invited to lunch. Expecting a couple of great stories, he brings along his camera. Fascinated by her tales, Rose becomes his Scheherazade over a period of six years as he learns of the fascinating and complicated life she has led and the people she has known, and along the way, he learns something about himself, too.