Set in an unnamed country not unlike our own, at a time that could be tommorow or the day after, the drama centers around Jack, a student of no particular distinction who finds himself at the center of the intellectual elite, courtesy of his marriage to Judy, whose father, Howard, is a revered poet and thinker held in disfavor by an increasingly repressive regime. As the political and military situation in the country deteriorates and violence spreads through the society, Jack realizes that the ivory tower his family inhabits has become a prison. In a series of candid, even shocking reminiscences, he recounts his abandonment of the world of ideas and his gradual rebirth as a socially acceptable low brow. As Howard and his kind are systematically destroyed by a society that no longer needs or wants artists, Jack manages to survive, mourning a culture that has all but died.