In a bar, a college student affirms that the United States does not have any folktales involving characters who grant wishes. An elderly man then interrupts him, insisting that he is wrong. He mentions O.W. Grant, who carries a pipe in the shape of a monkey's head. Grant travels the country granting wishes to strangers, usually messing with them in the process. However, if he likes you, he will play it straight. Meanwhile, St. Louis -based grocery warehouse worker Neal Oliver aspires to be an artist, despite the lack of support from his father and girlfriend. At a party for his 22nd birthday, O.W. Grant is the waiter who serves the cake. While blowing out the candles, Neal wishes for an answer to his life. His father responds by handing him an admission letter to law school that Neal does not want to attend. The family goes outside to look at the red BMW convertible that Neal's dad bought him as a gift, but Neal notices that the car was clearly meant for his dad and not him. Neal is later struck on the head by a falling bucket. Neal wakes up in the hospital, where a doctor named Ray comes in and does a sight test using playing cards. Neal has to name the suit on the cards. Neal asks if he got it right, and Ray points out that the cards actually had red spades and black hearts, emphasizing that things are not always what they seem. After leaving the hospital, Neal sees a woman that he has been dreaming about in a billboard advertisement, but the billboard company insists that the billboard is blank. After checking the billboard, Neal sees a new picture of her, this time with a framed inscription "Call 555-1300". Neal calls the number, and a recorded message says that he has an appointment at 555 Olive Street, Suite 1300 in the downtown area. At the appointment, Ray gives him a package to deliver to a Robin Fields in Danver, Colorado (not " Denver "). Neal will find Danver by taking Interstate 60. With no Interstate 60 on the roadmap, Neal sets out south to where it should be, (between I-40 and I-70) and encounters O.W. Grant on the roadside. Grant gives Neal directions to Interstate 60. On his journey, Neal meets a man who can consume unnatural quantities of food and drink; a woman looking for perfect sex; a mother looking for her son, who lives in a city where the population is addicted to a government-controlled drug; a dying ex-advertiser on a crusade to punish dishonesty; and Mrs. James, who runs the Museum of Art Fraud that actually contains real masterpieces posing as fakes. At the town of Morlaw, where all citizens are lawyers who spend their days suing each other, Neal finds Lynn, the imprisoned woman he has been dreaming about and painting. Lynn met O.W. Grant and wished to find the right guy. They have sex at a motel. Neal also makes a painting of the motel. Neal leaves to deliver the package in Danver, while Lynn stays behind. On the radio, Neal hears of a reported murderer on the loose, and the description matches his car. He abandons his vehicle to hitchhike. In Danver, Neal meets "Robin Fields", who turns out to be O.W. Grant. After opening the package (which holds a replacement monkey-head pipe for O.W.'s broken one), Grant uses his powers to "warp" Neal back in time, where he wakes up in the hospital before he first encountered Ray. Leaving the hospital, Neal confronts his father and asserts his right to live his life without the latter's interference. His sister takes him to an art gallery where Neal sees his painting of the motel – submitted on his behalf by O.W. Grant after Neal had "left it" there. He is approached by Lynn, who in reality works with Danver Publishing, because she took an interest in his painting. She talks about wanting to commission him to do more paintings on roadside motels and diners.

On November 30, 1962, a month after the Cuban Missile Crisis, George Falconer is a middle-aged English college professor living in Los Angeles. George dreams that he encounters the body of his longtime partner, Jim, at the scene of the car accident that took Jim's life eight months earlier. He bends down to kiss his dead lover. After awakening, George delivers a voiceover discussing the pain and depression he has endured since Jim's death and his intention to end his life that evening. George receives a phone call from his dearest friend, Charley, who projects lightheartedness despite also being miserable. George goes about his day putting his affairs in order and focusing on the beauty of isolated events, believing he is seeing things for the last time. At times, he recalls his sixteen-year-long relationship with Jim. During the school day, George comes into contact with a student, Kenny Potter, who shows interest in George and disregards conventional boundaries of student–professor discussion. George also forms an unexpected connection with a Spanish male prostitute, Carlos. That evening, George meets Charley for dinner. Though they initially reminisce and amuse themselves by dancing, Charley's desire for a deeper relationship with George and her failure to understand his relationship with Jim angers George. George goes to a bar and discovers that Kenny has followed him. They get a round of drinks, go skinny dipping, and then return to George's house and continue drinking. George passes out and wakes up in bed with Kenny asleep in another room. While watching Kenny, George discovers that he has fallen asleep holding George's gun to keep George from killing himself. George locks the gun away, burns his suicide notes and in a voiceover explains that he has rediscovered the ability "to feel, rather than think". As he makes peace with his grief, George suffers a heart attack and dies, while envisioning Jim appearing and kissing him.

At a party, guests are waiting for the married couple Laura and Oliver Bradford to arrive. John Hillgrove, a blind pianist, proceeds to perform his tone poem titled "The Enchanted Cottage," which he wrote in their honor. Laura Pennington cycles to a seaside New England cottage where she meets Hillgrove and his young nephew Danny. Laura had heard fantastical stories about the cottage from her mother before her death. Feeling ostracized for her homely appearance, she is hired as a caretaker by Mrs. Abigail Minnett, a widowed tenant owner. She feels a mutual connection with Laura after losing her husband during World War I. Oliver Bradford, a soon to be called up Army Air Forces pilot, arrives, having rented the cottage with his new fiancée, Beatrice Alexander. Beatrice, however, is displeased with the cottage decor, but Laura reassures her that the cottage is magical, showing her the window where couples have written their names. Later that night, a honeymoon party is planned for the engaged couple, but Oliver sends a letter stating he will be unable to arrive. He has been called back into military service before his wedding. Beatrice subsequently cancels their leasing agreement. One year later, a telegram arrives stating Oliver's intention to rent the cottage indefinitely. Oliver arrives, hiding his face inside his trench coat, and locks himself in his room. During a stormy night, Laura enters his room where Oliver reveals his disfigurement from the war. His face is scarred, and his right arm and hand are disabled after his plane was shot down in the Battle of Java. The next morning, Laura develops a connection with Oliver in the garden. Hillgrove arrives and converses with Oliver, stating that when he became blind, he developed a new lease on life by appreciating music. By nighttime, Oliver receives a letter from his mother, Mrs. Price, but he refuses to see her and his stepfather due to how he looks with his war injuries. Laura finds Oliver by the seashore. In an attempt to keep distance from his mother, Oliver proposes to Laura, and she accepts. After their honeymoon, Laura and Oliver return to the cottage, both feeling transformed. A flashback to before their wedding dinner is shown in which the couple initially reflect on their sham marriage. Laura tries to declare her love for Oliver but is unable to do so. She runs to her bedroom in tears, but Oliver comforts her. He realizes his genuine love for Laura, seeing her as a beautiful, glamorous woman. Laura in return sees him as handsome and unscarred. At the cottage, Oliver's mother and stepfather arrive, and Hillgrove unsuccessfully attempts to notify them about Oliver and Laura's "transformations". However, Mrs. Price mentions Laura's "not being pretty" while complimenting her character before she leaves, which breaks the spell of their mutual illusion, and they're "transformed" back to their former selves. The couple turns to Mrs. Minnett, who gives them her validation of their love, telling them that her beloved late husband made her feel beautiful, because that's how people who are truly in love see each other—and that's the real enchantment of the cottage. She then leaves the room. Oliver and Laura hold hands, then proceed to write their names on the window. Back to the present, the couple arrives at the front door, where they happily embrace and kiss each other as their idealized selves before entering the house.

There are four main story arcs, listed in approximate order below. In typical Wong fashion, they are presented in non-chronological order. Knowledge of Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love is assumed, but not necessary to understand 2046.

An army of the Teutonic Order invades and conquers the city of Pskov with the help of the traitor Tverdilo, and massacres its population. Novgorod is their next intended target. Despite resistance from the boyars and merchants of Novgorod (urged on by the monk Ananias, Tverdilo's henchman), an appeal is made to Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky, to again become their prince and defend Novgorod. To do so he rallies the common people of the Novgorod area. In the decisive Battle of the Ice, on the surface of frozen Lake Chudskoe, the Teutonic forces are defeated. Pskov is retaken, and there Nevsky passes judgment: the surviving Teutonic foot-soldiers are set free, while the surviving Teutonic knights will be held for ransom. Tverdilo the traitor, together with a Catholic priest who blessed the burning alive of Pskov children, disappear as they are mobbed by the onlookers. A subplot throughout is the rivalry and friendship of Vasili Buslai and Gavrilo Oleksich, two famous (and historic) warriors of Novgorod. Both become commanders of the Novgorod forces, and are engaged in a contest of courage and fighting skill in order to decide which will win the hand of Olga Danilovna, a Novgorod maiden whom both are courting. At the same time Vasilisa, daughter of a boyar of Pskov killed by the Teutons, joins the Novgorod forces as a soldier. She and Vasili wind up fighting side by side; she throws him a weapon when he is surrounded and weaponless, and it is she who finds and slays Ananias. Gavrilo and Vasili are seriously wounded and are found by Olga, who retrieves them from the battlefield. Though they defer to each other, in the end Vasili publicly states that neither was the bravest in battle: that honor goes to Vasilisa, followed by Gavrilo. Thus Gavrilo and Olga are united while Vasili chooses Vasilisa as his bride-to-be (with her unspoken consent).

In 1971, Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo speed across the Mojave Desert. Duke, under the influence of mescaline, complains of a swarm of giant bats, and inventories their drug stash. They pick up a young hitchhiker and explain their mission: Duke has been assigned by a magazine to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle race in Las Vegas. They bought excessive drugs for the trip, and rented a red Chevrolet Impala convertible. The hitchhiker flees on foot at their behavior. Trying to reach Vegas before the hitchhiker can go to the police, Gonzo gives Duke part of a sheet of "Sunshine Acid" (ultra-purified LSD), then informs him that there is little chance of making it before the drug kicks in. By the time they reach the strip, Duke is in the full throes of his trip and barely makes it through the hotel check-in, hallucinating that the clerk is a moray eel and that his fellow bar patrons are draconian lizards. The next day, Duke arrives at the race and heads out with his photographer, Lacerda. Duke becomes irrational and believes that they are in the middle of a battlefield, so he fires Lacerda and returns to the hotel. After consuming more mescaline, as well as huffing diethyl ether, Duke and Gonzo arrive at the Bazooko Circus casino but leave shortly afterwards, the chaotic atmosphere frightening Gonzo. Back in the hotel room, Duke leaves Gonzo unattended, and tries his luck at Big Six. When Duke returns he finds that Gonzo, high on LSD, has trashed the room, and is in the bathtub clothed, attempting to pull the tape player in with him as he wants to hear the song better. He pleads with Duke to throw the machine into the water when the song " White Rabbit " peaks. Duke agrees, but instead throws a grapefruit at Gonzo's head before running outside and locking Gonzo in the bathroom. Duke attempts to type his reminiscences on hippie culture, and flashes back to San Francisco, 1965, where a hippie licks spilled LSD off his sleeve. The next morning, Duke awakens to an exorbitant room service bill and no sign of Gonzo (who has returned to Los Angeles while Duke slept), and attempts to leave town. As he nears Baker, California, a patrolman stops him for speeding, and advises him to sleep at a nearby rest stop. Duke instead heads to a payphone and calls Gonzo, learning that he has a suite in his name at the Flamingo Las Vegas so he can cover a district attorney's convention on narcotics. Duke checks into his suite, only to be met by an LSD-tripping Gonzo and a young girl called Lucy, who Gonzo explains has come to Las Vegas to meet Barbra Streisand, and that this was her first LSD trip. Duke convinces Gonzo to ditch Lucy in another hotel before her trip wears off. Gonzo accompanies Duke to the convention, and the pair discreetly snort cocaine as the guest speaker delivers a comically out-of-touch speech about "marijuana addicts" before showing a brief film. Unable to take it, Duke and Gonzo flee back to their room, only to discover that Lucy has called. Their trips mostly over, Gonzo deals with Lucy over the phone (pretending that he is being savagely beaten by thugs) as Duke attempts to mellow out by trying some of Gonzo's stash of adrenochrome. Duke has a bad reaction to the drugs and is reduced to an incoherent mess before he blacks out. After an unspecified amount of time passes, Duke wakes up to a complete ruin of the once pristine suite. After discovering his tape recorder, he attempts to remember what has happened. As he listens, he has brief memories of the general mayhem that has taken place, including Gonzo threatening a waitress at a diner, himself convincing a distraught cleaning woman that they are police officers investigating a drug ring, and attempting to buy an orangutan. Duke drops Gonzo off at the airport, driving right up to the airplane, before returning to the hotel one last time to finish his article. He then speeds back to Los Angeles.

In an English village in the 1800s, Victor Van Dort, the son of nouveau riche fish merchants, and Victoria Everglot, the neglected daughter of impoverished aristocrats, prepare for their arranged marriage, which will simultaneously raise the social class of the Van Dort family and restore the wealth of the Everglot family ("According to Plan"). Although the two are initially nervous, they become smitten and fall in love instantly when they meet; however, the nervous Victor ruins their wedding rehearsal by forgetting his vows, dropping the ring, and accidentally setting Lady Everglot's dress on fire. Fleeing to a nearby forest, Victor successfully rehearses his vows with a tree and places his wedding ring on what appears to be an upturned root. However, the "root" is revealed to be the skeletal finger of a deceased woman named Emily, who, gowned in a wedding dress, rises from the grave and proclaims herself as Victor's new wife. She spirits them both away to the Land of the Dead, a colorful and whimsical realm in which the spirits of the deceased reside. During his time with Emily, Victor learns that she was murdered years earlier on the night of her elopement by her fiancé, who stole the family jewels and gold she had brought (" Remains of the Day "). She reunites him with his long-dead dog Scraps, and they bond. However, desperate to return to Victoria, Victor tricks Emily into returning them to the Land of the Living by claiming he wants her to meet his parents. Emily brings Victor to see Elder Gutknecht, the kindly ruler of the underworld, who grants them temporary passage. Victor reunites with Victoria and confesses his wish to marry her as soon as possible. Before they can share a kiss, Emily discovers them and drags Victor back to the Land of the Dead, feeling betrayed and hurt ("Tears to Shed"). Victoria tries to tell her parents and the village pastor of Victor's situation, but nobody believes her. Assuming Victor has left her, Victoria's parents decide to marry her against her will to Lord Barkis Bittern, a presumed-wealthy visitor who appeared at the wedding rehearsal. After reconciling with Emily, Victor learns of Victoria's impending marriage to Barkis from his family's newly deceased coachman Mayhew. Upset over this news, he decides to marry Emily properly after overhearing Elder Gutknecht tell her that due to Victor still being alive while she is dead, her accidental marriage to Victor is nullified by default. He knows that this will require him to repeat his wedding vows with her in the Land of the Living and drink the poison 'the Wine of Ages' in order to join Emily in death. The dead swiftly prepare for the ceremony and head "upstairs" ("The Wedding Song"). There, the village erupts into a temporary panic upon their arrival, until the living recognize their departed loved ones and joyously reunite with them. The chaos causes a panicked Barkis to expose his own poor financial standing and his intentions to marry Victoria only for her supposed wealth, leading her to reject him. Victoria witnesses Victor and Emily's wedding as Victor completes his vows and prepares to drink the poison, only for Emily to stop him when she realizes she is denying Victoria her chance to live happily with him. Just as Emily reunites Victor and Victoria, Barkis arrives to kidnap Victoria; Emily recognizes Barkis as both her previous fiancé and murderer. Victor duels with Barkis to protect Victoria, and Emily intervenes to save Victor's life. Accepting defeat, Barkis mockingly toasts Emily for dying unwed and unwittingly drinks the poison, causing him to die. This allows the dead – who cannot interfere in the affairs of the living – to take retribution against him for his crimes. Emily, now freed from her torment, releases Victor of his vow to marry her and returns his ring, so he can marry Victoria. As she steps into the moonlight, she dissolves into a swarm of butterflies that fly into the sky as Victor and Victoria watch and embrace.

Liu Cheng (Liu Peiqi) is a widowed cook making his living in a small southern town in China. His thirteen-year-old son, Liu Xiaochun (Tang Yun), is a violin prodigy. In the hope that Xiaochun might find success as a violinist, Liu Cheng and Xiaochun travel to Beijing to participate in a competition organized by the Children's Palace, an arts institution for school children. Even though Xiaochun emerges fifth, he is denied admission into the conservatory as he does not have Beijing residency. Determined to realize his hopes for Xiaochun, Liu Cheng persuades Professor Jiang (Wang Zhiwen), a stubborn and eccentric teacher from the Children's Palace, to take Xiaochun as a private student. In the subsequent days, Xiaochun makes friends with Lili (Chen Hong), a young and attractive woman living upstairs. Lili does not have a regular job but lives off the rich men she dates. However, her heart lies with Hui (Cheng Qian), her smooth-talking, cheating boyfriend. After Lili finds out about Hui's affairs in the presence of Xiaochun, Xiaochun sells his violin to a shop, buys a fur coat that Lili fancies, and leaves it at Lili's apartment for her to find. Unfortunately, Hui finds the gift before Lili does, and gives it to Lili, claiming that it was from him. Lili does not discover that Hui lied (and that the coat was from Xiaochun) until later. Meanwhile, Liu Cheng has learned about a Professor Yu Shifeng (Chen Kaige), a high-profile professor from the Central Conservatory of Music. Believing that Professor Yu is able to bring Xiaochun to fame and success, Liu Cheng decides to switch teachers for Xiaochun. He pays Professor Yu a visit and confides in the latter the truth about Xiaochun's birth. It turns out that Liu Cheng has never been married. He found the infant Xiaochun abandoned in a train station, with a violin placed next to the baby. Liu Cheng brought both home and raised the baby as his own. Xiaochun turned out to be a child prodigy, and Liu Cheng resolved to devote his life to cultivate his adopted son's talent. Professor Yu, apparently unmoved, nonetheless agrees to give Xiaochun an audition. However, Liu Cheng arrives at Professor Yu's home with Xiaochun only to find the violin case empty. Xiaochun, angry at his father for choosing commercial success over music, refuses to play even when offered another violin. Liu Cheng is so enraged that upon returning home, he tears up the award certificates that Xiaochun won in previous competitions. Lili, remorseful over the affair of the fur coat, looks up Professor Yu and persuades him to give Xiaochun a second chance. This time Xiaochun plays, and an impressed Professor Yu accepts him without hesitation. Professor Yu has another talented young student, Lin Yu (Zhang Jing), a highly jealous and ambitious girl. When a selection trial for an international competition is coming up, Lin Yu and Xiaochun are in a contest for the only spot. Liu Cheng decides to pack up and return home first, both to allow Xiaochun full concentration and to raise some money should Xiaochun be selected to participate in the international competition. In an effort to infuse passion and emotion into Xiaochun's playing, Professor Yu tells the boy the truth about his birth. However, this only strengthens Xiaochun's love for his father. Just before the selection trial, Xiaochun, who has been chosen to participate, relinquishes his spot to Lin Yu after she reveals to him that Professor Yu had secretly bought Xiaochun's original violin from the shop to stop Xiaochun from being distracted by thoughts of it. Xiaochun then takes the violin and runs after his father. The two finally reunite at the train station. In place of fame and success, Xiaochun chooses to be together with his father.

" The producers wish to acknowledge the extensive facilities accorded by the Air Ministry and by members of the Royal Air Force, also the valuable help received from Messrs. A.V. Roe & Co. Ltd. They wish also to record their appreciation of the approval willingly given to the telling of this story by all those represented in it and by the next of kin of the many members of 617 Squadron who, from this or later operations, did not return. " — Opening captions Spring 1942 : Aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis is struggling to develop a means of attacking Germany's Ruhr Dams in the hope of crippling German heavy industry. Working for the Ministry of Aircraft Production, as well as his own job at Vickers, he works feverishly to make practical his theory of a bouncing bomb which would skip over the water to avoid protective torpedo nets. When it hit the dam, backspin would make it sink while retaining contact with the wall, making the explosion far more destructive. Wallis calculates that the aircraft will have to fly extremely low (150 feet (46 m)) to enable the bombs to skip over the water correctly, but when he takes his conclusions to the Ministry, he is told that lack of production capacity means they cannot go ahead with his proposals. Frustrated, Wallis secures an interview with Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris, the head of RAF Bomber Command, who at first is reluctant to take the idea seriously. Eventually, however, he is convinced and takes the idea to the Prime Minister, who authorises the project. Bomber Command forms a special squadron of Lancaster bombers, 617 Squadron, to be commanded by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, and tasked to fly the mission. He recruits experienced crews, especially those with low-altitude flight experience. While they train for the mission, Wallis continues his development of the bomb but has problems, such as the bomb breaking apart upon hitting the water. This requires the drop altitude to be reduced to 60 feet (18 m). With only a few weeks to go, he is ultimately successful in fixing the problems as the deadline for the mission approaches. On 16 May 1943, the bombers attack the Ruhr Dams. Eight Lancasters and 56 men are lost, but the Möhne and Edersee dams are breached, causing catastrophic flooding. Wallis is deeply affected by the loss of the crewmen, but Gibson stresses the squadron knew the risks they were facing but they went in nevertheless. Wallis asks if Gibson will get some sleep; Gibson says that he has to write letters first to the dead airmens' next of kin.

In 1975, a time-traveling agent, whose face is not seen, suffers severe burns while trying and failing to disarm a bomb in a public building's basement. An unseen person helps him activate his time-travel device, called a "field kit", allowing him to escape to his agency's headquarters in 1992. He receives reconstructive surgery for his burns, but is told he will now look and sound different. He is further warned about the risk of mental instability from his long career. Once he recovers, the agent is sent on his final mission before retirement and goes undercover as bartender in 1970 New York City, where he meets John, a bitter columnist who writes under the pen name "The Unmarried Mother". When pressed on how he writes confession stories so well, John begins telling his life story. A baby was found on the steps of a Cleveland orphanage in 1945, where she was taken in and given the name Jane. Jane exceled both physically and academically in high school, and upon graduation was recruited by Agent Robertson to join the space program as a concubine, but was disqualified after a medical examination. In college, Jane fell in love with a mysterious man, but was abandoned shortly into the relationship. Jane went back to Robertson to try to join the space program, but Robertson admitted that he was using the space program as a front to recruit Jane for an elite covert agency that recruits people with no past and no certain future. Jane joined the agency, but was forced to drop out when she discovered she was pregnant. Jane gave birth to a baby girl at a hospital, telling the baby "you are the best thing that's ever happened to me", but, during the delivery doctors discovered that she was intersex. Complications during delivery rendered the female organs unviable, and the physicians began the process of gender reassignment surgery. Jane spent almost a year undergoing further treatment to become male, during which time the baby was kidnapped from the hospital by an older man. After being rejected from the space program again, Jane renamed himself John and relocated to New York City, eventually becoming a columnist and still harboring resentment toward the man who impregnated and abandoned him when he was Jane. When John finishes his story, the agent reveals that he works for the Temporal Bureau, in which Robertson is either a high-ranking officer or the head. He offers John the chance to kill his mysterious lover, who the agent thinks may be the Fizzle Bomber, in exchange for John joining the bureau as an agent. Together they go back to 1963, where John encounters and falls in love with Jane (his past self), realizing that he was his past self's lover all along. John, determined to change the past, goes ahead with the relationship and vows not to abandon himself. Meanwhile, the agent illegally returns to 1975 and helps his wounded past self, which Robertson allows as long as the agent kidnaps Jane's baby and delivers it to the Cleveland orphanage in 1945, completing the bootstrap paradox that makes John both of his own parents. Returning to 1963, the agent compels John to leave Jane and join the agency in 1985, as their troubled past is what will make them so effective at saving lives. They travel to headquarters, where John passes out and is hospitalized. Informed his field kit will decommission after one final jump, the agent retires to New York City in 1975, but the kit fails to decommission. With information left for him by Robertson, he finds the Bomber, only in his horror to discover that it is his future self. The bomber says that all his bombings were designed to prevent much greater disasters, and that the field kit still working is evidence that he was predestined to become the bomber. The bomber gives the agent a chance not to kill him and break the cycle, but the agent shoots him. The agent records a message to be delivered to John at headquarters when he wakes up in 1985, repeating the line "you are the best thing that's ever happened to me" that Jane told her baby. He then takes off his robe to reveal scars from gender reassignment surgery, confirming he is an older John—an orchestrated paradox created by Robertson.

Natha is a poor farmer from the village of Peepli in Mukhya Pradesh who struggles to earn enough money for his family. After taking a trip to the city with his elder brother, Budhia, Natha discovers that the banks will seize his farm if he does not pay off his outstanding loans. Meanwhile, the Mukhya Pradesh government has called a by-election where the opposition party believes they have a chance to form the government. The agricultural, poverty-stricken population has lost faith in the long-serving ruling party, whose Chief Minister, along with the Federal Agriculture Minister, believe in the industrialisation of rural areas. Natha and Budhia request financial help from the village headman, who mockingly suggests that they commit suicide, after which his family will receive monetary compensation for his death from the government. Budhia encourages Natha to do this for the sake of his family, but Natha is hesitant. While the two discuss at a tea stall, Rakesh, a local journalist, overhears the conversation and reports Natha's impending suicide on the news. The report quickly spreads to national news channels; one high-profile journalist, Nandita, joins Rakesh to interview Natha and his family. A rival channel also picks up the story, and each competes to report on Natha's suicide, increasingly intruding on his private life. The media at large soon descends on Peepli to await Natha's suicide, monitoring him at all hours. Natha becomes a celebrity, attracting visitors and businesses to the village. The ruling party tries to bribe Natha to prevent him from committing suicide, fearing it will galvanize the opposition. Conversely, the opposition encourages Natha to commit suicide, hoping to win the election while also using media attention to advance their own agendas. Rakesh, meanwhile, discovers a poor farmer in Peepli has died after his land was seized by a bank. He proposes writing a piece about the farmer to Nandita, who becomes frustrated and instructs Rakesh to concentrate on Natha's story. The village headman, allied with the ruling party, secretly kidnaps Natha and holds him ransom from the opposition parties. Rakesh tracks down Natha to a warehouse in Peepli and contacts Nandita, who rushes to the location; however, the rest of the media follow her there, suspecting she has a lead on Natha. In the resulting confusion, a spill from a Petromax lamp sets fire to the warehouse, which explodes, killing Rakesh. Government officials mistake Rakesh's badly burnt body for Natha's; after ruling that the death was an accident, the government refuses to compensate Natha's family, leaving them helpless. After Natha's death is reported, visitors and media depart from Peepli, leaving it decrepit. Before driving off, Nandita briefly wonders what happened to Rakesh. As the film ends, Natha is shown to have escaped to Gurgaon, where he works as a day labourer in the construction industry.