A young girl helps a student radical escape the police.

Mark, a student at a Los Angeles university, attends a meeting of radicals but leaves when he decides that they plan to take no action against political repression. He buys a revolver and goes to the campus where police are attempting to oust students from an occupied building, but he misses the chance to shoot a policeman when another bullet strikes the man first. Fleeing from the scene, Mark steals a small airplane from a private airport and flies east. From his plane, he sees a young woman, Daria, driving across the desert toward Phoenix; Mark flies over her car until she becomes amused by his attention and stops to wait for him to land. Leaving the plane behind, the two drive in her car until they reach Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, where Daria smokes marijuana, and they make love in the sand dunes. Later, at a roadside comfort station, Daria is questioned by a highway patrolman; unnoticed, Mark draws his gun, but Daria stands in front of the policeman. After the policeman leaves, Mark realizes that he must leave Daria and return to Los Angeles. He finds the plane and flies back to the airport, where he is killed by the waiting police. Daria drives on toward Phoenix and hears the news of Mark's death on the car radio. She reaches the plush office of her employer, Lee Allen, who is negotiating to build a modern community in the desert. Suddenly repulsed by crass materialism, Daria departs, fantasizing about the destruction of the building and all it represents.