Against the political landscape of an emerging new order, Rebecca West and John Rosmer are pitted in a life and death struggle. John Rosmer is the last of an aristrocratic line, a family who stands as a symbol of Christian morality. Rebecca West, a woman with a very different past, uses her influence over Rosmer to win him to liberal thought. Opposing her efforts is Kroll, the defender of a crumbling conservatism. In a battle for what seems to be the unattainable, Rosmer and Rebecca find themselves spiraling together in a direction beyond their control.