The film centers on the life of Tod Lubitch (John Travolta), who was born with an improperly functioning immune system. This means that contact with unfiltered air may kill him, so he must live out his life in incubator conditions. He lives with his parents, since they decided to move him from the hospital where he was being kept as a boy. He is constricted to staying in his room all his life, where he eats, learns, reads and exercises, while being protected from the outside world by various coverings.