A human cog (Sam Lowry) in the highly inefficient government machine of a future world (with a 1970s flavor) discovers a paperwork error that has resulted in the arrest of a shoe repairman (Mr. Buttle) instead of a rouge heating engineer (Harry Tuttle). On a quest to right this wrong, he discovers the girl of his dreams (Jill Layton) and together they navigate the labyrinth of bureaucracy in an attempt to assert their humanity in a world gone mad with technology for technology’s sake. Elaborate dream sequences demonstrate Sam’s desire to fly away from the mire of mind deadening government control.