Red Pawn is the first screenplay Rand ever sold. Purchased by Universal Pictures in 1932, Red Pawn is a story that takes place in Soviet Russia in the 1920’s. It is about an American woman, Joan Harding, who infiltrates a Soviet prison island to rescue her husband, Michael Volkontzev. Harding frees him by posing as a companion for the prison's Commandant, Kareyev, and must manipulate him while trying to free her husband.

The plot explores the evils of dictatorship, a character’s individual will, and the conflict between personal desires and State duties. The female protagonist, Joan Harding, embodies the individualist hero as she uses her intellect and will to defy an oppressive system. Since, Joan Harding acts as a unique individual with her own particular values, who rebels against a crushing collectivistic system that subordinates all desires and happiness to the State’s collective will.

The story originated as a 1932 screenplay by Ayn Rand and has been adapted into a graphic novel. It takes place in an undisclosed location in northern Soviet Russia. On Strastnoy island, a fictional prison island that was formerly a monastery. It portrays the inherent evil of the Soviet Union by illustrating how this collective society denies prisoners their civil liberties.

Basically, Red Pawn indicts Soviet totalitarianism by vividly portraying the horrors of the Soviet political prison system and the suppression of individual freedoms.