Professor Jack Gladney is a leading expert in Hitler Studies at a liberal arts college in midwestern America. Babette, his endearing and sarcastic wife shares her husband's greatest fear – death. When the pair are placed face-to-face with an apocalyptic event, they must take their children and escape from the mass hysteria surrounding the release of a toxic chemical. In their bid to escape, the whole family confronts the mayhem of death and destruction that becomes commonplace in their drive to survive. Somehow, however, it is mundane and daily things are the hardest to deal with. The shifting reality of life after the “Airborne Toxic Event” brings to light sharp critiques of consumerism and academia in 1980s America.