The story opens with a description of a statue on the grounds of the United Worlds organization raised to Richard "Dick" Altmayer.
Altmayer and his friend Geoffrey Stock have opposing positions when conscripted into military service for a war between human-occupied star systems.
Stock willingly reports for military duty, whilst Altmayer protests, believing that the various interstellar nations of humanity should be united against the Diaboli, an intelligent non-human race that also occupies several planetary systems in the galaxy.
Over a 45-year period, Stock reaches high military rank and then political office, whilst Altmayer is imprisoned and kept under house arrest several times for his radical idealism.
He starts political parties and protest movements, all of which fail to achieve their objectives of uniting humanity.