In the summer of 1968, Jesse, a law school dropout turned political activist, publishes and distributes an independent underground newspaper in Montreal. His girlfriend Karen is also an activist and works as a nightclub waitress. When Jesse is beaten up on the street for selling his papers, Karen becomes disillusioned with their beliefs and longs for peace. When David, a draft dodger from the United States, comes to live with them, Karen is intrigued by his passive, apolitical, drug-using philosophy. When the law proves useless in bringing to justice Jesse's attackers, he decides to travel to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. Rather than join him, Karen travels north with David to a pacifist communal farm in the Canadian woods. Karen must come to terms with what she really wants as Jesse is witness to the bloody and violent confrontation between riot police and protesters at the convention.