Act I
An airport lounge. After 20 years in prison camp, pacifist Lev is about to be reunited with wife Nadia and son Yuri. Yuri’s girlfriend Gayle and friend Hannah are waiting for the return of Hannah’s lover, Olympion, the new champion of the world. Olympion celebrates his blackness to the adoring fans. Gayle offers herself to Olympion. The fight which breaks out between Yuri and Olympion soon turns racist.
Act II
Violence divides the crowd. Yuri resents Lev’s homecoming – his father’s pacifism has done nobody any good. Yuri believes in action. Together Yuri and Gayle put on white masks and go to join their Klan. Nadia experiences a vision of death – but whose? The mob’s adulation drives a wedge between Olympion’s and Hannah’s love. Olympion leads his people to riot as Hannah experiences a long dark night of the soul. Olympion and Gayle are shot dead. Only Yuri survives.
Act III
With wife Nadia on the brink of death and his son’s life hanging in the balance, Lev loses all conviction. Learning that her son will live, Nadia asks Hannah to take care of her husband then drifts into childhood memories - and death. A crowd of Paradise seekers receive some good news, but mistake the messenger for the message. Yuri is given another chance at life. Hannah, now his nurse, helps the doctor cut away the cast. Yuri stands free, surrounded by cries of Spring and new beginnings. Lev and Yuri experience a moment of reconciliation. Yuri stumbles. Lev understands.