This play is an adaptation of Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon." In it, an Old Guard Bolshevik is arrested by the NKVD (the precursor of the KGB) by orders of Josef Stalin. He is accused of bizarre crimes against the Soviet state and must confess and participate in a show trial. He refuses. His interrogator is a former comrade of his who, in order to save Rubashov from outright liquidation, must convince him to jettison his ethics and participate in the charade, thereby consolidating the rule of Stalin.