In adapting Ray Bradbury's novel, François Truffaut ignored, for the most part, the science fiction aspects of the story and instead focused on the theme of linguistic and cultural deprivation in a bookless society. A married fireman (Oskar Werner), hired to find and burn books, journeys from one camp to another through a relationship with a woman (Julie Christie) who reawakens his affection for the written word.

Shot in color and in English, Fahrenheit 451 reflects Truffaut's own attraction to literature.