chelsea tells the story of two periods in the life of an artist, inspired by Andy Warhol, and how his relationships change as his career progresses. In the first act, the artist is starting to experience a trickle of success, and has started to change in response to it; the second act looks in several years later, when the artist has achieved international success and is in the process of filming an experimental film, made disastrous by the jealous, competitive behavior of its two actors.