When Paul Van Zale, a handsome patrician and powerful American banker, meets Dinah Slade in London, he commits the imprudence of falling in love with her....

Charles Ashworth is privileged, pampered, and pleased with himself. But when a catastrophe tears his life apart, his guilt drives him into an immoral and disordered life....

In 1968, 26-year-old Nick Darrow, younger son of the psychic priest Jon Darrow, begins to realize that his life is a mess. To all appearances he is a sober-living young man....

In 1963, when traditional values are under attack, Venetia, a young woman, becomes involved with the Dean of Starbridge Cathedral. But as a married man, he has nothing to offer her....

In 1940, Jon Darrow, a man who has played many parts, returns to the world he once renounced. But faced with many unforeseen temptations, he fails to control his psychic powers....