Cooped up in a hotel room for days during a prolonged rainstorm, Lorenz Tauber fails to meet his basic obligations as a professional photographer, losing a big account due to missed deadlines. A new opportunity arises that propels him into a 72-hour turnaround for a pitch to a new client. The assignment is a children's book for which he must not only create photographs for illustrations but finish writing the story itself since the original writer died. Lorenz suffers from writer's block but a series of telephone conversations with a front desk clerk, with whom he strikes up a friendship, end up sparking his imagination and inspiring him. With little time left and the weather being uncooperative, he must succeed in delivering his pitch by sunrise on Friday or his career, a sizable payday, and his self-esteem will be in jeopardy.