Beryl Gore is a lonely orphan living and working at the Palace Theater
in London. Night after night, the company performs tales of guts and
glory to an audience of drunken louts while young Beryl cranks the
artificial wave machine, entranced by the drama. The plays color Beryl's
otherwise humdrum life amongst the slaughterhouses and cobbled alleys of
the city. In her attic room, she pens her own melodrama, a bloody yarn
of pirates and damsels where goodness is always rewarded. When Beryl
shyly shows her work to Mister Perry, the Theater Manager, he shoos the
child away.
As Beryl enters adulthood, the theater ages with her, becoming shabbier
and emptier with each passing season. As theater-goers turn to fresh
spectacles elsewhere, Beryl realizes her theatrical world is in trouble.
If the Palace is to be saved, it will need a bold new playwright.