Richard and Maurice McDonald open a hamburger stand in San Bernardino, California in 1940, and streamline the kitchen into what they call a speedee service system, cutting the menu down and turning out burgers like an assembly line. The film tracks how a milkshake-mixer salesman named Ray Kroc spots the potential, buys into the operation, and opens the first franchised location in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1955, then pushes the chain into national and eventually global reach. Interviews with franchisees and customers, plus footage shot outside restaurants in Japan, India, and Saudi Arabia, show how the company adapts its menu and image to different markets while keeping the Golden Arches recognizable everywhere. The film covers the invention of signature items like the Big Mac and Filet-O-Fish, and does not skip the company's rougher chapters, including the McLibel trial in the United Kingdom and ongoing criticism over the health and environmental costs of its food. It stays largely sympathetic to the brand while still putting the criticism on screen.