Lauper plays Sylvia Pickel (pronounced with an emphasis on the "kel", as she points out), a trance-medium who has contact with a wisecracking spirit guide named Louise. She first began communicating with Louise after falling from a ladder at the age of twelve and remaining comatose for two weeks. Subsequently, Louise taught her astral projection while Sylvia was placed in special homes for being "different." At a study of physics, she meets fellow psychic Nick Deezy (Goldblum), a Psychometry (paranormal) who can determine the history of events surrounding an object by touching it. Sylvia has a history of bad luck with men, and her overly flirtatious behavior turns off Nick right away.