Doug Smith is a loner who lives in a cheap one-room apartment, and works as a storeman. He is not outgoing. He leaves home for work on a morning in which the Prime Minister has addressed Australians, asking them to shed themselves of their apathy. He is stopped by a reporter from a newspaper, and does not want to speak to her... but she is persistent... and he is determined to go on his way unharrassed. The reporter writes a story that has Doug Smith placed on the front page of an afternoon newspaper as "The Face of Apathy".