This investigative (but frequently humorous) film documents the surveillance activities of the New York City Police Department's Bureau of Special Services, known as the Red Squad. The film pitted Fischler and Sucher against the forces of both the police and the FBI's surveillance units, which were ever-present at the many anti-war demonstrations in the early 1970s. While documenting events at a protest rally, the two filmmakers became the subject of police surveillance and eventually amassed a hefty FBI file.

A colorful and provocative survey of anarchism in America, the film attempts to dispel popular misconceptions and trace the historical development of the movement. The film explores the movement both as a native American philosophy stemming from 19th century American traditions of individualism, and as a foreign ideology brought to America by immigrants. The film features rare archival footage and interviews with significant personalities in anarchist history including Murray Boochkin and Karl Hess, and also live performance footage of the Dead Kennedys.