The story is divided into two sections which meet in the latter part of the work but both relate to the Botallack mine in South Cornwall. The first involves a group of Russian students who defect to the West seeking political asylum from the British Government. However the incident causes international dissent from the Russian government, to the embarrassment of the British government and the students are hidden away in a remote spot in Cornwall until the dust dies down. Ivan becomes their leader of the group and he goes to Plymouth to meet with a Member of Parliament but after being given a load of political nonsense, he storms off and decides to go his own way. However, on the night before he went to Plymouth Ivan slept with Anna. She becomes pregnant and has a son but Ivan knows nothing about it until she writes to him to tell him. In the meantime, he comes into contact with Elsie, a widow living in a slum property, and he lives there with her and her son but he treats her badly, takes all her savings and eventually leaves her. He meets up with James, a mining consultant, who employs him to help him buy Botallack mine through the Stannary Court. On the other side of the story, Sadler, a bank manager, is visited by Wesley Morris, a trader who looks like a tramp with an old fur coat and a battered trilby hat. Morris wants to buy the mine and has come for a bank loan.
