Originally published as a tetralogy of novels individually, the four came out as one volume in 1950. Christopher Tietjens is a conservative British man, devoted to tradition, honorable, and upright. But his world is crumbling. His wife Sylvia, enraged by Tietjens's ethics, has affairs and plots against him. Tietjens fights in World War I, succumbs to a psychological breakdown, and takes a lover himself. Finally, he must learn to adapt in a world whose values have radically changed.