Chinese conjuror Wei Ling Soo is the most celebrated magician of his age, but few know that he is the stage persona of Stanley Crawford , a grouchy and arrogant Englishman with a sky-high opinion of himself and an aversion to phony spiritualists’ claims that they can perform real magic . Persuaded by his life-long friend, Howard Burkan, Stanley goes on a mission to the Côte d’Azur mansion of the Catledge family to expose a young clairvoyant, Sophie, as a charlatan.

From his very first meeting with Sophie, Stanley dismisses her as an insignificant pip-squeak who he can unmask in no time, scoffing at the family’s gullibility. But to his great surprise and discomfort, Sophie accomplishes numerous feats of mind-reading and other supernatural deeds that defy all rational explanation, leaving him dumbfounded and putting his entire belief system in doubt. What follows is a series of events that are magical in every sense of the word and send the characters reeling. In the end, the biggest trick this film plays is the one that fools us all.