Anna, a young Englishwoman, is drawn to visit Russia partly out of interest, to see for herself the ‘proletarian experiment’, and partly by Otto, a glamorous but faithless newspaper editor.

With nothing left now to keep her in Russia, she prepares to leave and return to England. But she has not reckoned with the environment of that closed nation, which has already begun to work on her nerves. She wonders if she will ever get out, and when delay follows delay, it seems as if she is losing her grip, hysteria threatening.

Anna is trapped, dazed by the terrifying atmosphere of suspicion and maddening delaying tactics of the Soviet Union …