A light sea breeze and soothing sounds of seashore opened the novel. A widow and a mother of three boys, whose name was Betty Flanders, was busy writing a letter to her old friend. The picturesque shores of Cornwall were a perfect playground for her boys, so she got some time for grieving for her dead husband. Later on, the family returned to their home, which was situated in Scarborough. When the night fell, the terrible storm started. Having decided to check on her boys, Betty noticed that Jacob took a goat skull he had found on the shore to a bed with him. That was a rather strange picture to see, the little boy and the skull of a dead animal lying together. Although Betty was not a young woman and had three children, she had two suitors, but never got married again.
It turned out to be that Jacob was a bright young man, for he managed to enter Cambridge University. In spite of the fact that his family had never had a lot of money and his upbringing could be described only as rural, he found good friends there. Once, when he and one of his friends, Timothy, visited the home town of the latter, Jacobs met the rest of Timothy’s family. Both his mother and sister, Mrs. Durrant and Clara liked Jacob immensely.
As soon as he graduated, Jacob left for London, where he continued self-education, earning his living by performing various jobs. His love life was rather unstable too. He had an affair with Florinda, who was beautiful but could hardly be characterized as well-educated. Clara who also moved to London, failed to attract his attention and so did Fanny, for Jacob made up his mind to leave the city.
At the age of 26, he managed to realize his dream and visited Greece. His journey could be more successful, if he hadn’t met Sandra Williams, who also traveled across Greece with her husband. Firstly, he wanted to travel on his own and secondly, he was too distracted by Sandra, so he returned to London. He didn’t have a chance to get rid of his lovesickness, for soon enough the war broke out and Jacob joined the army. The man was killed during one of the numerous battles.
