Leonard Mead enjoys taking evening walks through his empty city, where he is usually alone. On this particular night, he is stopped by a lone police car, which questions him about his solitary walks. Though Mead has done nothing wrong, the police car instructs him to get in. Mead is taken to the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies. The story is set in a futuristic year where technology has replaced human interaction and isolation seems to be the norm.