Part 1 (through page 101) Summary

When Duncan and Jean Cambus arrive at their home in Kensington from the Commen Ball, Jean tells her husband that she is leaving him once again for David Crimond. Nothing that Duncan can say will change her determination to leave him.

The book, which Crimond is writing, becomes interwoven into the lives of seven of the novel's characters - David Crimond, Duncan and Jean Cambus, Rose Curtland, Gerard Hernshaw, Jenkin Riderhood and young Tamar Hernshaw. Crimond comes from an obscure background, has little money and lives frugally. When he begins to discuss his desire to write a book about his political ideas, his friends agree to give him financial support. Through this pact, the Crimondgesellschaft comes into being, although the members simply refer to themselves as the Gesellschaft, or Brotherhood.

As the years pass, Crimond continues to receive a...