Under Stalin, it was inconceivable that anyone could publish a book attacking Soviet injustice. But under Khrushchev, a limited but distinct thaw has taken place. Prime evidence of this change was open publication of One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich, an exposé of Stalin's labor camps where the author, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, himself did time. Tonight's adaptation of the novel is set in 1951 in Siberia. A group of prisoners persuade the authorities to transfer them to warmer work by promising to top the previous work record on the first day. But if they fail, it's back to laying barbed wire in the snow. One officer, Lieutenant Volkovoi, would like nothing better.

James Congers, a CIA agent who becomes an alcoholic, believing himself responsible for the death of two close friends. The Russians believe that he would be useful in fingering potential soviet defectors. The Americans plans to use Conger's inebriated state to get him into a mental hospital, and there locate an enemy spy. His girl friend merely wants to get him to pull himself together.

James Congers, a CIA agent who becomes an alcoholic, believing himself responsible for the death of two close friends. The Russians believe that he would be useful in fingering potential soviet defectors. The Americans plans to use Conger's inebriated state to get him into a mental hospital, and there locate an enemy spy. His girl friend merely wants to get him to pull himself together.