A Jewish barber, definitely clumsy as a soldier, is wounded during the First World War and hospitalised with severe amnesia. Once he has recovered, he returns to his job but the world around him has profoundly changed. Dictator Adenoid Hynkel has come to power and unleashed a Jew-hunt on the advice of his éminence grise Garbitsch. The poor barber is thus targeted and, despite the help of a young girl for whom he has deep feelings, he’s subjected to abuse. But his extraordinary resemblance to Hynkel allows him to take his place.