Cleric John Preston (Christian Bale) is a top government agent responsible for enforcing the law that bans emotion in the futuristic state of Libria. This is a world at peace, where war is a distant memory, and so is music, art and poetry. Here, emotion is illegal and is punishable by death. But when Preston is forced to kill one of his fellow agents he begins, however, to question the system and decides to fight against these cruel new laws.