Reconstitution of the career of photographer Bob Mizer who, in the fifties, founded the "Athletic Models Guild" agency, intended exclusively for male models. Under the vigilant watch of his mother and partner, he had a kind of "paradise" in his studio, where young models could spend the day around the pool, sun-bathing, while they awaited a session for photographs or filming. Mizer's boys would strike poses in settings that were highly suggestive, and the photographs were published in magazines on a cult to beauty and physique, such as "Adonis" and "Tomorrow's Man". To evade censorship, he would camouflage the eroticism of his work with photographs that inevitably included gym equipment and that were backed-up by articles on health and muscle-building.
     Beefcake is a compiling of photographs and films from archives, fictional scenes, and interviews with men who worked before and behind the cameras. With good humor, the film broaches the homo-erotic aspect of this type of photography.