The Road to Wellville

The novel introduces Doctor Kellogg as the perfectionist and manipulator of rich patients. His perfect life is suddenly disrupted by his son George. Will Lightbody and his wife Eleanor are on the train to Battle Creek to stay in Doctor Kellogg's Sanatorium. They meet with Charlie Osinning, an aspiring businessman who travels to Battle Creek to start his breakfast cereal business. The novel follows the two characters of Charlie and Will parallelly, who find themselves in unescapable, frustrating circumstances that make their lives go completely downhill.