Acceptable levels dramatizes the clash of cultures that occurs when a British television crew arrives in Northern Ireland to make a documentary about ordinary young people. The early stages are set extensively in Belfast and contrast, often humorously, the life of a local family with that of the visiting crew. At the height of the film, a young girl is killed by a plastic bullet, fired by passing British soldiers, and the following sequences hinge on the producer’s effort to “balance” this incident within his film.