Harvey Middleman (Eugene Troobnick), a New York City fireman, lives happily in a New Jersey suburb with his wife (Arlene Golonka) and two small children.

Harvey loves his life but after a fight with his wife over dinner one night he imagines himself rescuing a beautiful young girl from a fire.

After secretly dating her several times, Harvey decides he must solve his moral dilemma by consulting his psychiatrist Mrs. Koogleman (Hermione Gingold).

Bosley Crowther, in The New York Times, wrote "As a matter of fact, the idea for this modestly-made comedy would provide just enough substance for a brisk animated short."

and "the vein does not seem to feed as freely into a 75-minute film, performed by human actors, as it does into an 8-minute cartoon"[2] when referring to some of Pintoff's earlier credits, while Craig Butler's AMG review reported that "A satirical fable about middle class life in 1960s America, Middleman starts out promisingly but eventually turns conventional and rather predictable."