The promise of a dazzling career at the Bar beckons Lewis Eliot to London; but his infatuation with the capricious Sheila Knight unsettles his plans for the future.

His health restored, Lewis Eliot returns to London to resume his career at the Bar. He re-contacts Sheila Knight , but is shocked to learn she is in love with another man.

Lewis Eliot leaves the bar and takes up a part-time post at Francis Getliffe 's Cambridge college. When his friend Roy Calvert is considered for a Fellowship, Eliot gains his first insight into the world of college politics.