“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” tells the story of Walter Mitty on a trip into town with his wife, Mrs. Mitty. Walter is clumsy at many things; he can’t handle simple tasks, and he forgets things easily. Although, Walter has a huge imagination.

While Walter goes through a day of tasks and errands, he escapes into a series of daydream fantasies, each based on by some part of reality. As he drives his car, he imagines he is commanding a hydroplane through a terrible storm, but this is merely his wife telling him to slow down while driving. When he rides past a hospital, he imagines he is a world-famous surgeon saving a VIP’s life. When he hears a newsboy shouting, he imagines he is being interrogated in the courtroom. As he waits for his wife to finish at the hairdresser’s, Walter sees pictures of German plane and imagines he is a British pilot willing to sacrifice his life for Britain. Lastly, as Mitty waits outside against a wall for his wife to buy something in a medicine shop, he daydreams that he is brave man about to be shot by a firing squad. The story ends with the inscrutable Walter Mitty awaiting this “gunny” death.

Walter is a daydreamer, and that is a bad thing. He can’t really focus on things, since he gets distracted by his daydreams.