Merle is an officer in an anti-communist 'Red Squad' during the McCarthy Red scare. Rounding up the suspects, curbing the 'pinko threat' is surely the thing to do, just part of the job. He supervises the arrest of a bunch of beatniks, poets, musicians - young people who are surely a threat to society. But when one of the suspects is killed during the arrest Merle is set on a journey that threatens to change his view of the world and transform his life. Could there be a wrong kind of right?