Anthony Comstock Patch is twenty-five years old and full of the conviction of his own importance. His ancestral heritage descends from his grandfather, Adam Patch, who joined the Union army during the Civil War, left the war a major, and entered Wall Street. There he built a multimillion-dollar fortune but became a righteous reformer when his health began to fail. His son, Adam, was a man about town. He became a widower when his son, Anthony, was five years old, then he died six years later while touring Europe with Anthony. Through the deaths of his parents and soon his grandmother, Anthony acquires a spirit of melancholy that stays with him for the rest of his life.

Until the age of fourteen, Anthony’s favorite pastime is stamp collecting. For two years, he is tutored in Europe with the aim of attending Harvard as a way of “opening doors” to his destined future. In college, Anthony lives within himself, diving into books and flamboyant fashions. It is not until his senior year that he discovers that the other students view him as a romantic figure but a recluse. With this news, Anthony begins to socialize. He graduates when he is twenty years old.

After college, Anthony travels to Rome to study architecture and painting as well as music and poetry. Several of his Harvard classmates visit him as they journey through their own European tours. He returns to America when he is twenty-three to respond to his grandfather’s illness. He decides he must put off until his grandfather’s death any plans to live abroad permanently. He finds an apartment in New York and begins to settle down. His home is furnished richly and brightly. In his bathroom are hung photographs of four of the leading actresses of the day.

Anthony has the use of an English servant named Bounds each morning, who is taciturn and somewhat hostile. He visits his broker at least once a week to check on his income, which amounts to about seven thousand dollars a year. His grandfather sees this as sufficient, but Anthony always seems a little short of cash. Someday in the future, he is sure he will have millions.

On his return from Rome, Anthony visits his grandfather, who is nowhere as near death as Anthony had hoped. When his grandfather suggests that Anthony should do something productive, Anthony announces that he wishes to write about the history of the Middle Ages. Adam Patch is not impressed with this idea. The interview comes to an end, and Anthony leaves, seriously considering his plan to become an historian.

One afternoon, Anthony plans to dine with two of his closest friends, Dick Caramel and Maury Noble. After dinner, Caramel will most likely go home to work on his own book while Anthony and Maury go to the theater. After bathing, Anthony looks out his window and sees a girl in a red negligee on the roof of a neighboring house. He watches her for several minutes. He finishes dressing, then he returns to look at the girl, who turns out to be a fat woman of thirty-five.

Maury and Anthony meet at the restaurant. Caramel is late, working on his novel, titled The Demon Lover. Eventually he arrives and they discuss their evening plans. They go to a play and then home to bed. Anthony realizes he is thoroughly enjoying New York.

In a vignette, Beauty personified is sent to earth on a mission that will last fifteen years. She will be a society girl in the Jazz Age. She will be paid in love. This takes place seven years before Anthony returns to his apartment following the play.