Until his employer died, a simple-minded man named Chance had worked his entire life as a gardener in Washington, D.C., totally sheltered within house and garden, his only knowledge of the outside world coming from television. Out on the street, Chance is hit by the limousine of an influential businessman’s wife, who takes him home as a guest. When Chance’s references from television and to his garden are taken as metaphors, he is assumed to be a great thinker and becomes a Washington insider.