The core plot follows psychiatrist Bill Maplewood (Dylan Baker), a married father who drugs and rapes two 11-year-old boys, alongside storylines of Joy Jordan (Jane Adams) enduring failed relationships and exploitation, Helen Jordan (Lara Flynn Boyle) seeking validation through obscene calls, and other characters pursuing connection through taboo acts. These elements serve dark satire on human depravity and the illusion of happiness, with no framing around systemic oppression, identity politics, or critiques of traditional norms.

The film contains zero progressive ideological themes or messaging in plot, dialogue, or character arcs, allowing its unflinching examination of personal failings to stand without any overlay of activist messaging. As a 1998 production, Happiness features traditional casting of established white actors in original roles, with only incidental background diversity that plays no narrative role. The surrounding controversy centers exclusively on the taboo sexual content involving pedophilia rather than any activist intent or DEI elements, and the creator's focus remains on depicting raw human darkness without injecting contemporary political agendas. This absence of ideological overlay keeps the satire centered on individual moral collapse instead of broader social indictments.