The Iron Heel is the story of the life of Avis Everhard in the near future after the rise of a powerful oligarchy, the title organization, of Trusts and tycoons. Avis becomes involved with a man named Ernest and the two become entangled in a rising revolution. While the revolution is eventually crushed and the two lovers executed, a secondary narrative by scholar Anthony Meredith, writing from the fictional universe's future, suggests that their efforts were not in vain.