Frank Wheeler is a dock laborer who has aspirations to become a cashier. It is 1948, and he meets pretty April, an aspiring actress, at a party. There is instant attraction between them and they begin dating. Frank uses his father's connections at his old firm, Knox Machines, to secure a sales position, and he and April save up enough to get married. They move into 115, Revolutionary Road. April learns she is pregnant.
The Wheelers seem like they have the perfect marriage, at least to those on the outside of it. Even their close friends believe their life together to be idyllic. They make friends with their realtor, Helen Givings, and her husband, Howard, and also with their neighbors Milly and Shep Campbell. Unbeknownst to their friends, there are cracks in their marriage, and a great deal of stress and tension. April's career as an actress does not pan out, and Frank's dream job turns out to be dull, and it bores him. He feels age catching up with him too, and asks a secretary at Knox Machines out for a drink on his thirtieth birthday. The secretary gets drunk and they go back to a hotel where they have sex.
Helen and Howard ask April to meet their son, John, who has recently been released from a mental hospital. Helen believes that the company of a younger couple will help him adjust to life back out in the world again more easily, so April agrees.
April has wanderlust. She wants a change, and decides that they should move to Paris. At first Frank does not like the idea but the more he thinks about it, the more he agrees that it might be just the change that they need. They begin planning as a couple; they tell their friends, none of whom understand this new desire of theirs - except for John, who understands it perfectly, and is hugely supportive. As moving day draws closer, Frank is offered a promotion at work, and April finds out the she is pregnant again, but she doesn't want another child, and considers an abortion. Frank is livid when he finds out and screams at her abusively. He takes the promotion and calls off the move to Paris.
This plunges April into a depression, because she doesn't like her life. She and Shep find themselves alone after a night out at a jazz bar with both of their spouses, and she confides in him, which leads to them having sex in the car outside. Shep confesses that he has always been attracted to her but she shuts down is overtures of love and romance.
Frank tells April about his affair with the secretary and hopes that his honesty will bring them closer, but to his surprise April does not really care that much, because their marriage doesn't matter to her anymore. She has no love for him and so this news does not hurt her. Frank refuses to believe this and feels that she is putting up a front. The Givings come over for dinner and Frank tells them that they are no longer going to move to France because April is pregnant; John gets angry with him for taking her dreams away, and for settling for a life he doesn't want because it is easier than going after the one he desires. Frank is furious and almost attacks John, who leaves hastily with his sister and brother-in-law.
After their guests have left, Frank and April get into an argument which turns abusive, so much so that April runs from the house, fearing Frank's violent temper. Frank spends the rest of the night drinking and is still in stupor the next day. He finds April in the kitchen making breakfast. She goes upstairs to the bathroom and calmly performs a vacuum aspiration abortion on herself but when she realizes that she is bleeding she calls an ambulance to take her to the hospital where she later bleeds to death.
Frank is devastated and also feels extremely guilty because he pushed April into having children he knew that she did not want to have. He moves to the city and gets a job as a computer salesman. When a couple named the Braces purchase the house, Milly tells them all about the Wheelers, which upsets Shep, who says that he never wants them to talk about them again. Years later, Helen tells her husband that the Braces are a wonderful couple and the perfect people to have purchased the Wheeler home. She confesses that she never really liked the Wheelers anyway.
