Tim Lippe (Ed Helms) was the guy people always thought would go places but then he just . . . didn't. He's been living in über-sleepy Brown Valley, Wisconsin his whole life, still "pre-engaged" to his 7th grade teacher Millie Vanderhei (Sigourney Weaver), while selling insurance to protect other people's dreams. But now, Tim's stalled life is about to get a kick-start because, for the first time in his 34 years, he's headed to a "major" metropolis, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he must try to save his company at a do-or-die insurance convention that, for him, will be entirely unconventional. From the minute he checks into his hotel with his ancient American Tourister and cummerbund money-belt, it's clear Tim has no idea how the modern world really works. He is soon smitten with seductive Nebraskan insurance agent Joan (Anne Heche). Disheartened when he comes face-to-face with corporate corruption, Tim is ultimately lured beyond the lobby into an urban jungle he's only ever seen on DVD and when it seems his life - and chances to succeed - have gone completely topsy-turvy, he finds his own unjaded way to turn it all around.