In a dystopian future, Europe is unified under a totalitarian patriarchy, where each town is assigned a single economic purpose. In Brendovery, Wales the occupation is prostitution. Arriving by train from London is Billy Hampton, a young American expatriate and draft evader (Bill Paxton in his first lead role), ostensibly there to enjoy a sex-filled holiday. Unknown to him he is a time bomb assassin, programmed by a feminist terrorist cell to assassinate the local minister of prostitution.

Antoinette Vitrini, a volcanologist, confirms her theory of a long-dormant underground volcano after an offshore-drilling rig bursts into flames. Now, she must stop catastrophic amounts of magma from pumping out right under Miami, Florida.