It's a story about a planet that's economy is based on selling a specific spice , but otherwise seems to have little going for it . Mostly desert , inhabited by huge worms . And how it , "accidently," becomes something so much more .

It has an interesting side plot about religion though. The Bene Gesserit, an order of women who pass down ancestral memories to eachother through a ceremony in which spice is used, have seeded pseudo religions on many different planets including Dune, and are also involved in a breeding programme to create the Kwisatz Haderach, a male with their powers... it’s good stuff.