Craig Schwartz is an unemployed puppeteer in a forlorn marriage with his pet-obsessed wife Lotte. After being hired as a file clerk for LesterCorp, in the strange Floor low-ceiling offices of the Mertin-Flemmer Building in New York City, he develops an attraction to his coworker Maxine Lund, who does not return his affections. Craig discovers and enters a small door hidden behind a filing cabinet, and crawls down a tunnel. Suddenly he is quickly drawn into the opposite end of the tunnel, and finds himself in the mind of actor John Malkovich.