We hear Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman) reciting these words as we see Guy Fawkes on November 5th, 1605, attempting to blow up Parliament. He is intercepted by a dozen or so members of Britain's royal guard, and is sentenced to hang until dead. At the hanging, he briefly makes eye contact with his wife before the panel drops out from under his feet and he is killed.
425 years later...
We see two seperate people getting ready to go out that evening while watching a news post from the voice of Parliament, Lewis Prothero (Roger Allam). One is Evey, who puts on lipstick and a rather alluring dress before turning the TV off and calling it bullshit. The other is the man known only as V, who is only seen wearing a Guy Fawkes mask. He throws on a hat, cape, and about twenty daggers before heading out. On the street, Evey steps out to head to her friend and manager Gordon's house just in time to hear a voice say that curfew is now in effect and anyone found on the streets will be arrested. She continues on anyway but soon finds herself confronted by a group of men who ask where she thinks she's going. After a few failed attempts to get away, the men start getting rough and reveal themselves as Fingermen (think British secret police). They tell Evey she'll soon be very sorry, but just then, V strides up. He gets the Fingermen to come to him instead, and he quickly dispatches them in front of a very frightened Evey. He introduces himself to her in an over the top fashion, saying a word that starts with "V" every two words, if not more frequently, and she gently asks if he's mad. He chuckles and assures her that everything is quite alright, and then asks if she likes music, for he is both a conductor and a player of the drums. She says yes and we next see the pair on a rooftop overlooking the city. V pushes a button and asks Evey if she knows what day it is. She replies, "November 4th." Just then, Big Ben starts ringing midnight, and V says, "Not anymore," and recites the Guy Fawkes rhyme. He begins conducting and at first Evey hears nothing, but suddenly the 1812 overture begins playing from speakers set up throughout the streets courtesy of the government. Suddenly, the Old Bailey building blows up in a massive display of fireworks, one of which creates a humongous V in the sky.
The next day we see a meeting in a darkened room of a dozen men high in government, such as Prothero, Bishop John Lilliman (John Standing), Chief Inspector David Finch (Stephen Rea), and Finch's superboss William Creedy (Tim Pigott-Smith) in a teleconference with High Chancellor Adam Sutler (John Hurt). The meeting is about covering up what V did by saying that it was a planned demolition for reconstruction work to begin on the tower. Meanwhile, we go to BTN News, where all the hubbub is about what V did last night, and where Evey works as a kind of gopher to the more important (at least to them) people. While we see Evey going through her daily routine and apologizing to Gordon (Stephen Fry) for not showing up last night, we also see Finch and his assistant Dominic (Rupert Graves) getting a lead on Evey, who they are using to try and track down V, even raiding her flat in the hope that they'll find something. Just as they find where she works and start heading over there (learning that her parents died in riots when she was young), Evey herself is delivering a bunch of packages to the set, where the wardrobe designer opens them up to find...a bunch of Guy Fawkes masks. Evey pales and runs off.
Meanwhile, we see V getting into the station and esentially taking control of everything there. As the police learn where he is, V sets up a broadcast. It heads out on every available station and basically says that there was once a holiday celebrated today that the government has made us forget. V, however, plans to rebirth that holiday and its ideals, such as freedom and justice, one year from tonight, and asks that the entire populace of Britain join him to bring down Parliament one year from tonight. While this is being broadcast, we go to various spots in Londodn and see many different types of people all responding positively to V's words. Meanwhile, Evey has heard this and is running through the building looking for V. meanwhile, Finch is right outside the soundstage and busts in, but finds dozens of people wearing V's outfit. Two of them break out into the hall. Guns are held on both and Finch unmasks...the lead reporter. V then takes down all of the cops, killing some but sparing Finch, Dominic, and one or two others. He is about to make his exit when a cop gets him from behind. Evey sees this, makes a choice, and takes the cop out with some pepper spray. he screams and knocks her out, but V is now able to take him down. He looks at the unconscious Evey, and takes her. Later, we see Finch surveying the wreckage (metaphorically -- no bombs this time) and wondering why V took Evey...
Some time later, we see Evey waking up in a bed somewhere. She gets out of bed and hears music coming from some unknown source. She wanders around the flat until she finds an old jukebox. She turns and finds V standing behind her. He tells her that she is in his private home and that because of what they both did -- her saving him and him taking her -- she has to stay there until his revolution is over a year from now. Naturally, this is less than pleasing to her and she freaks, but he is adamant. She goes to the bedroom and weeps, but next morning over breakfast she is more understanding of and recptive to the idea. A few weeks pass, and one night we see Lewis Prothero on the phone in his bathroom getting ready to shower and yelling at some camera guy about how he looked in a recent broadcast. he hangs up the phone and starts talking along with the broadcast when he is attacked from behind by V. V taunts the guy and calls him "Commander" and we briefly see Prothero as a commander at some sort of hospital. V kills Prothero and places a rose on the body. The next morning, we see Finch and Dominic at the crime scene and planning to cover it up by saying he had some sort of stroke in the night.
Later that day, Evey is awakened by the sounds of fighting. She rushes out and sees V dueling with a suit of armor while a movie plays on the telly. He explains that the movie is his favorite, "The Count of Monte Cristo", and he asks if she's ever seen it. She says no, and the two sit down to watch it. After it's over, Evey says that it makes her sad for Mercedes, since Edmond Dantes (the count) ended up caring more for his revenge than he did for her. Right on cue, a news report comes on talking about Prothero's death. Evey says that she knows the reporter is lying because she blinks too much and asks V if he had anything to do with this. He says yes and when questioned, he goes onto say that he will be killing more people before everything is done.
More time passes. We see Finch find out that Prothero was a commander at Lakehill Base, which was working on a cure for the St. Mary's virus years ago. They go to see the major who was in charge of things there, but due to the secrcy of it, he gives replies which don't help them much in their questioning. Meanwhile, Evey comes to a decision and goes to V, who is examining some old paintings. She tells him how as a child, she watched as her baby brother died as a result of the viruses that ravaged London...the ones Prothero's group were supposedly trying to find a cure for. She went out with her parents, who became more and more militant, at first passing out papers condeming the government, but becoming more and more active, eventually leading to the death of her father in a riot. Not long after, men came for her mother and "black bagged" her. She tells V that she wishes she was strong enough to do something, but she isn't. Finally, she tells him that iif there is ever anything she can do to help in his revolution, she will. He thanks her for the offer.
Back with Finch and Dominic, we see them getting some tax records for the mystery camp. One of them mentions a bishop, John Lilliman. We go to that worthy to see one of his lowers saying that the package has arrived and is in his office, but it is older than normal. Lilliman goes into the office, and waiting for him is Evey, all dolled up in a 1950s high school poodle-skirt outfit complete with shorts bang and mega-curled hair. She goes to Lilliman's bed, but she immediately begins warning him that V will be coming through the door to kill him any minute. He doesn't believe her and begins to rape her, but is interrupted when V comes in. Lilliman yells out, "She was right!" and V glances at Evey who gives him an "I'm sorry" look. She runs out the building while he takes care of Lindeman. Later, Finch is at the crime scene and about to start clean up when Creedy arrives and tells him to stop looking into V's past. Meanwhile, Evey has gotten to Gordon's house and after a minute, he lets her in. She tells him everything that's happened and he agrees to put her up. When she asks why, he shows her a bunch of old reliqgious and political stuff he has, such as a Koran and a socialist flag. He tells Evey that he's not scared about helping her because if they find her here and they find what he has, than her presence will be the least of his worries.
Elsewhere, we see Finch talking to a coroner, Delia Surridge (Sinéad Cusack). He tells her what happened with the bishop and leaves her with a type of flower that was supposed to be extinct that V leaves on all his victims. Later, Finch is reviewing the background info from Lakehill again and notice a name that they haven't been able to find, Dr. Diana Santos. They do a search and that night get results which say that she changed her name to Delia Surridge, and Finch realizes where they need to be. Meanwhile, at Delia's house, she wakes up from a sound sleep and intuitively knows that V is there. They talk, and she apologizes for w