Set in Jakarta during the Indonesian revolution, A Road With No End asks the question, "What must we do to free ourselves from fear?" The novel's two principal characters, Isa and Hazil, are put to the test by the times they are living through. Isa is timid and submissive by temperament; Hazil, on the other hand, appears to harbor no doubts and does not know physical fear. But by the end of the novel, when the two are in the hands of Dutch Security, their personalities and how they react to incarceration produce markedly different responses.