Joe Curran is the titular everyman and unabashed hippie-hater. Joe, who equates hippies with everything un-American, finds a kindred spirit in Bill Compton, an advertising executive who makes Joe's acquaintance at a neighborhood bar, boasting that he killed a drug-dealing hippie. Bill, pressed for facts by the intrigued Joe, recants saying that he was merely joking. However, when a news report confirms the incident, vigilante justice akin to Taxi Driver is set in motion.