A young American war widow named Marion Brown, a Central American totalitarian agitator named Carlos Marinos and an American named Tom Jarrot are the three main characters. Tom Jarrot is wanted on serious charges in Atlanta. The place is Antigua, Guatemala, the time, 1947. At this precise moment in the story Marion Brown has discovered that she herself is a member of the Terrified Society. The novel begins in the United States where Mr. Jarrot gets into trouble with society in general and in particular with Marion Brown. It ends in those violent and beautiful Central American countries, Guatemala and San Salvador.