Great Expectations is the first documentary to present the grand architectural visions of our time. Visions where imagination has been allowed to run free. Sometimes unrealized and unbound by earthly conditions, sometimes realized and revolutionary to its inhabitants. But the film deals with far more than mere illusions of grandeur. It is the story of great thinkers who in different time-periods of the 20th century have suggested revolutionary changes to our ways of living - and how it is to live in their dreams. The answers vary, but the intentions of the architects were good - mostly. Using archive footage and animations, the film brings architecture of the past and plans never realized to life. Visiting inhabitants of the visions that became realized, their stories comment and contrast the ambitions of the architects.