In 1977, Eddie Adams is a high-school dropout living with his stepfather and emotionally abusive mother in Torrance, California. He works at the Reseda, Los Angeles nightclub owned by Maurice Rodriguez, where he meets Pornographic film Jack Horner, who auditions him by watching him have sex with Rollergirl, a porn starlet who always wears skates. After having an argument with his mother about his girlfriend and sex life, Adams moves in with Horner at his San Fernando Valley home. Adams gives himself the stage name "Dirk Diggler", and becomes a star because of his good looks, youthful charisma, and unusually large penis. His success allows him to buy a new house, an extensive wardrobe, and a "competition orange" Chevrolet Corvette (C3). With friend and fellow porn star Reed Rothchild, Dirk pitches a series of successful action-themed porn films. Dirk works and socializes with others from the porn industry, and they live carefree lifestyles in the late 1970s disco era. That changes at a New Year's Eve party at Horner's house marking the year 1980, when assistant director Little Bill Thompson discovers his porn-star wife having sex with another man, shoots them both and kills himself.