A mature Eric Blair (George Orwell's given name) looks back to his younger self with regret; He was shamed into being the public executioner of a rogue work elephant while stationed in The British Foreign Service in Burma. Based on the George Orwell short story of the same name, 'Shooting An Elephant' tracks the tragic steps of a day long rued, when a man's innocence was forever lost. Reprimanded by his ineffectual superiors, goaded on by the very Burmese who had grown reliant, yet distrustful of the English uniform, driven to blood lust to by his own false pride, Eric Blair (Barry Sloane), kills an elephant he did not wish to harm solely to avoid humiliation, and in the process loses his own humanity.