When budding actress Gemma Huang flies to Beijing to star in a film of M. Butterfly, she is mistaken for a notorious socialite, kicking off a series of revelations her parents had carefully concealed from her.

Twelve-year-old Derek Fallon has the opportunity of a lifetime--to perform stunts in a movie featuring a popular twelve-year-old star--but complications arise involving his best friend, a capuchin monkey, and Derek's chronic inability to concentrate on schoolwork.

When we first meet Maria Lagana, she's rewriting scripts at Mercury Pictures, a failing Hollywood studio known for its schlock. Maria's job is to re-craft dialogue and action to circumvent the censors, a skill she's mysteriously adept at. Born in Italy,as a teenager Maria witnessed Mussolini's censors arrest her father, an event that will destroy her family and burden Maria with questions of guilt and responsibility she will carry with her throughout...

Twelve-year-old Isobel is unhappy about spending the summer of 1918 at her aunt's home in Hollywood with her mother and sister until her cousin, Ranger, involves the girls in creating the perfect film and, when her father returns from the war, his serious injury becomes their inspiration.

Asked by a Bollywood star for help protecting a valuable ruby, Geronimo Stilton and Hercule Poirat are inadvertently cast in the actress's film in spite of limited acting skills and are horrified when an anonymous thief makes off with the ruby.