William Lee makes his living as a bug exterminator. Gradually succumbing to insecticide addiction, he slowly loses the ability to differentiate between reality and fantasy. His typewriter slowly begins to resemble a giant talking cockroach and he becomes a part of a weird anti-government conspiracy. Cronenberg's adaptation of W. S. Burroughs's most famous novel won many prestigious awards, including for P.Suschitzky's excellent cinematography.