Stephen Mitchell has had enough of college. Mason college has been an adventure that has broken his heart, his faith, and his belief in the rightness of the universe. His heart is crushed by love and by the murder of his friend and room mate, a young Negro who introduced Stephen to the world of Southern politics. Stephen has met and resisted Southern bigots; discovered that free love isn't exactly free, and when the Marine Corps rejects him because of a heart murmur he finds himself headed back to Mason.