Paul Pennyfeather is a quiet and unassuming student at Scone College, Oxford. One evening, on his return to his rooms, he is set upon by a member of the notorious Bollinger Club resulting in the loss of his trousers. He is expelled from the college for indecent behavior.

Evelyn Waugh's satirical tale of the English class and public school systems in the 1920s, where no one is safe, least of all Paul.