After Scott Carey is contaminated by a mysterious cloud, he undergoes a bizarre metamorphosis in which he gradually shrinks to the size of an insect. During the process, Carey witnesses not only the loss of his physical prowess but also his position as head of his household, leading to a debilitating impotence. Arnold brilliantly reworks the B-movie plot line to investigate the increasingly prevalent domestic anxiety then seeping through a culture that was struggling to reinforce traditional gender roles amidst great social change. The film provides an intelligent critique of the constraints of life in postwar American suburbia.