1968 deals with Vietnam on both fronts: Spider is a confused young man who likes to disappear into his science fiction novels. He is drafted into search-and-destroy missions in the jungles of Southeast Asia, becoming an unwilling witness who barely manages to stay alive through some of the most vicious fighting of the war. Beverly is "the girl he left behind." Innocent, yet open to new experiences, she drifts into the bizarre counterculture that has split America into two warring camps.

When Spider comes home, driven to the edge of insanity by the horrors he has seen, he is beaten down by the psychomedical establishment and is lost to family and friends who are unsure how they should receive their returning warriors. Beverly is in another world, thousands of miles away, herself beaten by the police during the Chicago Democratic Convention. Both Spider and Beverly have to find a separate peace in a world gone mad.