In the future, people are deprived of the ability to express emotion. This is the price humanity pays for eliminating war from their lives. Books, art and music are now outlawed, and any emotion is a crime punishable by death.
The enforced use of the drug prosium is used to enforce the existing rule. Government agent John Preston fights those who break the rules. At one point, he forgets to take another dose of the drug, and he undergoes a spiritual transformation, which brings him into conflict not only with the regime, but also with himself.