Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) is a reporter who is about to shoot a documentary on Britannia Hospital, an institution which mirrors the downsides of British Society. It's the day when the Queen Mother is to visit the hospital to inaugurate a new wing, where advanced (and sinister) scientific experiments led by Professor Millar (Graham Crowden) will take place. Everybody in the hospital, from the cooks who refuse to cook, to the painters who couldn't care less about getting their work done, to a cannibalistic African dictator (à la Idi Amin Dada Oumee) whom demonstrators want expelled from the hospital and tried, will contribute to making Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth's visit (and Mick Travis's life) a true nightmare.