Having just reached adulthood, Clyde Griffiths has always lamented his lot in life, he the only son of poor missionaries. He has gotten a peripheral view of society life, to which he aspires, in his work as a bellhop at an upscale hotel. If being truthful to himself, he would admit that he lacks moral strength, he often taking the easiest but perhaps not the most ethical path to protect himself. Forced to move from place to place out of circumstance, he ends up in Lycurgus, New York working at the Samuel Griffiths Collar and Shirt factory, Samuel Griffiths his paternal uncle. Not knowing his uncle or his family, Clyde only wants a chance to get ahead, not expecting anything else from his wealthy relations. After an apprenticeship, Clyde ends up as the foreman in the stamping department. Despite a company rule forbidding foremen to fraternize with staff, especially those working in the same department, Clyde begins an affair, a clandestine one out of necessity, with Roberta Alden, who works in the stamping department under him. Their love is an obsessive one, made all the more powerful due to its clandestine nature. That changes for Clyde when he meets, through his wealthy relations, society maiden Sondra Finchley, the two who immediately fall in love with each other. The extra draw of Sondra over Bert is Sondra's standing in society. By this time, Bert informs him that she is pregnant with his child, she pressuring him to do right by her in getting married. Wanting to be with Sondra instead, Clyde contemplates murdering Bert by drowning her in a lake, he knowing that she doesn't know how to swim. Although Clyde is ultimately unable to commit this act of murder and will do right in marrying Bert, he, due to that lack of moral strength, nonetheless is caught in a resulting tragic situation for all involved.