The story of the student Paul Pennyfeather, who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is expelled from university entirely without fault, tries his luck as a teacher at a dubious boarding school, falls in love with the stunningly charming mother of one of his students, and becomes entangled in the machinations of high society. Evelyn Waugh's debut is a fast-paced satire on the Bildungsroman and English high society.