It''s 1942 and Humphrey Bogart seems to have it all.

By day, he''s reading lines for Casablanca with Ingrid Bergman; by night, he''s drinking bourbon on the Sunset Strip with friends like Peter Lorre and Leslie Howard. But to Bogart, life is not so glamorous. High-profile fights with his wife Mayo and a rigid studio contract committing him to a series of mediocre films have him feeling personally and professionally trapped. That is, until one day a mysterious note arrives on set.

Heeding the strange invitation, Bogart finds himself in a series of long, secret conversations with his aunt and cousin about the swashbuckling tales of their ancestor, the pirate Jan Janszoon van Salee. These tales of the high seas ignite a fire within Bogart to carve out a path that is uniquely his own—even if it means shedding the roles and people who made him famous.

Janszoon is more than a Hollywood fantasy; it''s a journey into the heart of a man wrestling with ambitions and desires, an actor who yearns to balance his on-screen personas with his off-screen reality. From his tumultuous marriage and infamous USO tour, through his affairs with Verita Patterson and Lauren Bacall, Janszoon imagines a life in which the enigmatic Humphrey Bogart seeks a legacy that transcends the ephemeral glow of stardom.