A sad, poignant love story set against the social upheaval of the Vietnam war. Set in 1968, the story concerns a woman who, while her husband is serving in Vietnam, falls in love with a paraplegic while performing volunteer work at a San Diego veterans hospital.

A feeble-minded gardener whose entire knowledge of life comes from watching television is sent out into the real world when his employer dies. Equipped with his prize possession, his remote control unit, the gardener encounters a series of hilarious events.

"In one of his most finely tuned performances, Peter Sellers plays the pure-hearted, childlike Chance, a gardener who is forced into the wilds of Washington, D.C., when his wealthy guardian dies. Shocked to discover that the real world doesn't respond to the click of a remote, Chance stumbles into celebrity after being taken under the wing of a tycoon (Melvyn Douglas, in an Oscar-winning performance), who mistakes his protégé's horticultural mumblings...