In Barcelona, Spain during the last decade of the Cold War, Ted Boynton, the Spanish representative for a Chicago electric engine firm, plays host to his cousin, Fred Boynton, a lieutenant in the Navy. Ted is earnest and ambitious, but not a typical American salesman. Fred is an advance man for the Sixth Fleet's upcoming shore leave. They are smart but somewhat naive white-collar workers, who wear suits, are very serious about themselves, and who always try to sound impressive--in a senior seminar manner. The film questions the adequacy of overly civilized behavior in tough, real-world situations, the values that inform it, and the struggle to determine what those values are. In the end, this is a portrait of two capable, earnest young men destined for an imminent move into the ill-defined purgatory of middle management.