Anna Bedford, a young and idealistic girl from Pennsylvania, accepts a State Department assignment to serve in the US Embassy in Moscow shortly after the allied victory over fascist Germany. Immediately upon her arrival at the new post, she discovers that virtually the entire staff at the embassy is engaged either in espionage or in slandering and vilifying the Soviet state. Her open-minded approach to Soviet reality quickly brings her into conflict with her superiors, who send her back to the States to attend her mother's funeral. While back in Pennsylvania, Anna discovers a changed America, plagued with massive unemployment and hatred fueled by anti-communist hysteria. Even death provides no escape from this national insanity: the cemetery where her mother is buried is plowed under in order to build a new military air base. The film was to end with Anna's return to Moscow, embraced by the masses of the Soviet people and marching with them across Red Square.