Plot Summary

Guy Montag is a fireman who lives in a society in which books are illegal. His job is not to extinguish fires, but to light them. He burns books, and all the firemen wear the number "451" on their uniforms because that is the temperature at which books burn.

But the role reversal of the firemen is not the only difference between present-day society and the world in which Montag lives. People of Montag's world take no interest in politics or world issues. The only point of life is pleasure. Montag's wife, Mildred, spends her time watching the televisions that take up three of the four walls in their parlor, or listening to the seashell radios that fit snugly in the ear.
It isn't until Montag meets a young girl named Clarisse that he realizes that there might be more to life than the electronic entertainment that absorbs everyone. Clarisse makes him think about the world beyond the wall television and seashell radios; she makes him wonder about life.

This newfound curiosity gets Montag into trouble when he takes an interest in reading the books that he's supposed to burn. When Captain Beatty, the fire chief, realizes that Montag has traded sides, he forces Montag to burn his own home. To save himself, Montag kills the fire chief and escapes the city. A manhunt ensues on live television, but when Montag eludes the authorities, an innocent man is killed in his place to appease the audience.

Montag finds a group of educated, vagrant men who remember great novels so that when the world returns to an appreciation of literature, they will be ready to help out. He joins them. As they are walking away from the city, a bomb destroys the place that was once Montag's home. Knowing they will be needed, the men turn back to the shattered city to help rebuild a society that has destroyed itself.