Steve Kalman and his friends are overeducated, underworked postgraduates in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They met in college, and they had big dreams of changing the world through protest and political education. Steve has a master’s degree in economics. He lives with his girlfriend, Susan, and his friend George. Steve spends his days reading leftist economic philosophy and occasionally substitute teaching. His parents fear that he’s become a burnout. Although the group maintains their political fervor in theory, they pass their days smoking marijuana. They talk in hypotheticals instead of acting to change the status quo. One by one, friends begin to drop out of the activist scene and get “real” jobs. One day, George announces that he’s moving out of the apartment. He’s going to get a master’s degree, and he has an uncle who’s willing to set him up with a job at a publishing house upon graduation. Later, Steve meets up with Phil. He’s a friend who’s going to use a wealthy uncle’s money to open a business so he can get rich quick. Steve continues to speculate about the futility of his political beliefs as well as his friends’ hypocrisy. George, Susan, and Steve row a boat down the Charles River on George’s last day in town. They get high and reflect on their time together. When they get home, Steve hallucinates a conversation with Chairman Mao Tse Tsung. Mao advises him to observe reality and act accordingly instead of being in his head so much. After George has moved out, Steve stands in the empty bedroom with Susan and ponders the future with a new outlook.