World-renowned physicist R. Oppenheimer, described as the "father of the atomic bomb," humble, "little man" engineer M. Sobell and prominent government official, adviser to President F. Roosevelt E. Hiss - they, like many other Americans, were accused of anti-American activities and put in the dock. The author traces the fate of these people with a wide background of both international events and the political atmosphere in the United States and bases his research on irrefutable documentary data.