film buff and film critic, alan felix (woody allen) starts encountering a recurring hallucination - humphrey bogart starts offering him tips on how to succeed with members of the opposite sex - after his wife starts divorce proceedings. his married friends dick (tony roberts) and linda (diane keaton) try to set him up with a string of dates, but they all go disastrously wrong due to felix's insecurities. however, it soon becomes apparent that by spending an increasing amount of time with linda, she is the only woman he really feels comfortable with, and she begins to reciprocate his advances. this eventually leads to a 'casablanca'-style showdown in this adaptation of allen's successful broadway play.