In the business-centered city of Zenith, George F. Babbitt is, "to the eye, the perfect office-going executive": he is a successful and wealthy realtor, has a nice suburban house, and owns everything that is modern and expensive. Yet, he is unsatisfied with his life because his business, religion, friendships, and golf alike are all "incredibly mechanical." Every day, he reads the newspaper editorials and listens to his neighbors just to parrot their ideas and appear intelligent, as long as it sounds conservative.

Babbitt's only true friend, Paul Riesling, is the one person he can be honest with. Like most people in Zenith, Paul has sacrificed his personal dreams for commercial success, giving up the violin for a roofing business. Riesling is also troubled like Babbitt and he is unhappily married. Blaming his problems on his bitter wife, he shoots her in the shoulder and is put in prison...