Marcello is a professional film restorer and an avid cinephile. While working on some of the most popular titles of Italian cinema, he comes across a strange figure almost hidden among the extras -  a man wearing a bowler hat and looking directly toward the camera, perhaps even at Marcello himself! He finds the same man in many other films from different movie ages. He grows obsessed with this figure, even if it seems Marcello is the only one who can see him.