John Travolta is a downtrodden single father raising his daughter under difficult circumstances in Chicago. The young girl comes upon and then nurses a wounded Doberman used for fighting, back to health. Duped by underworld types he was working as a courier for, father and daughter leave the dog and flee cross-country to Los Angeles with both canine and mobsters in pursuit.

Two brilliant research scientists have invented a device capable of recording and playing back sensory experiences only to have devastating results when one of them records their own death.