A young, recently educated man, suddenly impoverished by his father's death, accepts a modest tutorship for three boys at a secluded Mississippi plantation. His scholarly ideals collide with the household's refined display and subtle snobberies, revealing tensions of class, pride, and financial dependence. The narrative concentrates on his observations of the family circle—an indulgent aunt, a self-important elder guest, obliging servants—and on his inward struggle between ambition and compromise. Scenes range from intimate domestic detail to moral reflection, exploring manners, social pretension, and the cost of adapting intellect to genteel society.