Two modern day teenagers, brother and sister David and Jennifer (Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon), are transported by their TV repairman into the world of Pleasantville, a 1950s sitcom which David constantly watches. In Pleasantville the world is black and white, there is no sex or violence, the basketball team never loses and the library is full of blank books. But the presence of the two teens contaminates the dream-like atmosphere, and soon colour is spreading across the town and its inhabitants are behaving like real people. As Pleasantville becomes more and more modern David and Jennifer have to decide which they prefer: real life or sugar-coated fantasy.