A sensitive boy is sent by his fashionable mother to a strict Jesuit boarding school, where he confronts exile, class hypocrisy, and formative friendships and romances; the narrative traces his coming-of-age through episodes in Paris and provincial towns, entwining family ambition, social pretension, literary pursuits, illness, and moral conflict. Encounters with mentors, lovers, and rivals shape his temperament as misunderstandings and reconciliations lead to departures, a marriage celebration, and tragic illness in a hospital. The novel examines the cost of social climbing, the tensions between sentiment and society, and the bittersweet effects of art and education on ordinary lives.