Though he has managed to become a professor at an early age, a supposedly liberal young man has neglected developing his relationship skills. Even though he forms an attachment to a young woman whom he had been helping with the task of finding work and even marries her, he is appalled to learn that she is pregnant with another man's child. At the same time, his political convictions have been put to the test, and he has effectively shown that he was not as serious about them as he (and others) thought he was. Disappointed in himself and in his life, he leaves his new bride and attempts to find consolation in an affair.