伯克曼一家正面临一场家庭危机。老爸伯纳德（杰夫·丹尼尔斯 Jeff Daniels 饰）事业正在走下坡路，曾是畅销作家的他如今变得湮没无闻，反而是妻子琼（劳拉·琳妮 Laura Linney 饰）而今在写作上声名鹊起，令伯纳德倍感落差，并选择用尖酸刻薄嘴脸面对妻子的成功，二人不得不面临婚姻破裂的结局。两个儿子必定要因父母关系受到困扰。大儿子沃尔特（杰西·艾森伯格 Jesse Eisenberg 饰）16岁了，正值青春萌动，他坚决站在父亲一边，不料自己喜欢的女生竟然上了父亲的床；小儿子弗兰克（欧文•克莱恩 Owen Kline 饰）12岁，将父母离婚视作世界末日，甚至开始喝酒，因支持母亲变得和哥哥势不两立。一家四口的不知所措深深印在两个孩子的成长里面……

John's Gone is a fever dream comedy about John's World soon after his mother passes away. He sells things online, cheats off dollar stores, needs friends but settles for strangers, has roaches, and is prematurely thrust into the cruel wasteland that is the world around him. He is surrounded by people who don't speak his language, junk he piles up in his apartment filled with cultural beacons he ignores with idea of a potential sale. He is punch drunk (not with love) but something far more strange and lost. One can only say John's Gone.

讲述了一家历史悠久的好莱坞电影制片厂在一个艺术与商业日益难以共存的世界中努力生存的故事。