In a placeless locale much like the United States in an unspecified time much like the late 1960s, a university student called "A" becomes increasingly radicalized as he believes the campus leftist organization of which he is a member is not militant enough.

He joins a Marxist group headed by Despard, a working class factory worker who is fomenting a general strike.

He deserts when his unit is mobilized to suppress a workers' strike, finding sanctuary with Helen, a young bourgeois woman, hiding in a greenhouse.

"A" is left adrift when Despard, under Party orders, refuses to mobilize his group to take action.

Meeting the radical Leonard II at a bar in the company of Despard, "A" allows himself to be drawn into Leonard II's schemes, which include liberating a pawn shop and then assassinating the judge who will oversee the trial of the factory workers.