In Defectors, Takopoulos narrates the adventures of the students in a class of a privileged private school in Athens, where the students, shielded from the deprivations of the common people of that era - hunger, social disorganization, family breakdown, unemployment, terrorism - have the luxury to spend their time with various 'games', sexual games of course, but also war games, resistance games, communist-anti-communist games.

Inevitably, they too become embroiled in the larger game that their elders engage in with such lethal fervor, and inevitably the results for some are tragic. But why must they be called Defectors? Why this peculiar designation?

In a time when loyalty of all kinds—national loyalty, party loyalty, military loyalty, gangster loyalty, political loyalty, and even personal loyalty—enjoyed the highest regard, what did the Defectors of Takopoulos defect from?

In the words of Professor Parliamentou in his eulogy for his beloved student, Pari Meimargoglou, who lost his life in the most idiotic way, under the fire of a German officer during a demonstration in which Meimargoglou had no intention of participating, defection was from the submission of the older generation to the mundane routine of daily life.

“We adults are easily disappointed, we see everything through a dark lens, and we sometimes drag the youth with us, but, thank God, there are always among us the young, brave, and courageous defectors, who by their example…”