Best-selling author Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), who wrote biographies of celebrities such as Tallulah Bankhead, Estée Lauder and Dorothy Kilgallen in the 1970s and '80s, and profiles of other stars such as Katharine Hepburn, has fallen on hard times.

Turning to criminal life, she begins a lucrative scam with her loyal friend Jack (Richard E. Grant) by forging hundreds of letters purportedly written by luminaries as Dorothy Parker, Noël Coward, and Lillian Hellman, then selling her "memorabilia" to dealers across the country.

Based on the memoir by Lee Israel.