A devastating epidemic is ravaging the male population of reproductive age in the USA. In a panic over the virus, many men choose to undergo castration. A counter-sexual society is establishing itself against the old phallocentric order, and fanatical feminists are seizing both political and economic power. Far away from this chaotic world, in the forests of Vermont, a small group of scientists is kept in strict isolation as "protected men," among them neurologist Ralph Martinelli and his eleven-year-old son. Working on behalf of corporate leader Hilda Helsingforth, he is researching a serum against the deadly encephalitis—lawless, despised as a "phallocrat," spied on by militias, lab workers, and eunuchs, and monitored around the clock with listening devices. Until one day he learns of his impending death.