Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) has had enough of school so, using his immense ingenuity, he makes it look as though he is ill. He then takes his best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) and girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) off to spend a day out on the town. After a series of misadventures, he has to make it home before his headteacher finds out (or his sister drops him in it).