Told partly through the eyes of a dementia sufferer, populated by 'ghosts' from his past, The Barber portrays a father and son at a crossroad. As Miles struggles to shave the elderly and unloving father he's planning to put in a home, the physical closeness unleashes emotions and a bond that neither of them had thought was there.

In the Yorkshire Dales, a mysterious signal from space arrives with instructions to build a powerful super-computer. Once completed, the evice's motives provokes discourse between scientists John Fleming and Madeleine Dawnay as further instructions are to create a living organism, which Dawnay develops. The entity compels lab assistant Christine to commit suicide, and, upon manifestation, adopts her form, now known as Andromeda.