A political scandal threatens the March family. Lewis Eliot 's marriage, meanwhile, comes under pressure from a different quarter.

The Master of Lewis Eliot 's Cambridge college lies dying. Behind the facade of civilised learning, 13 colleagues battle to choose his successor.

As war looms, Lewis Eliot is drafted into Whitehall. Simultaneously he faces crises in the personal lives of his wife Sheila and his intimate friend Roy Calvert.