Gustave Klopp does a lot of dreaming. Born with an incurable "design flaw" (narcolepsy), stress causes him to fall fast asleep. So, understandably, he sleeps through most of school, being a teenager, dating, marrying, numerous jobs and having a mortgage.
But his sickness finally provides meaning to his life when he starts turning his dreams (heavily influenced by his father's love of American action movies) into comic books. His therapy group of misfits love his stories, but his therapist, his wife and his best friend all have ulterior motives and Gustave has to wake up to reality, or lose everything.
The film is quirky, funny and populated with eccentric characters with big dreams and thwarted ambitions. A surreal comedy that is also poignant and cruel.