When Mungo Lockhart begins his first

year at Oxford, he finds that his roommate

is Ian Cardower, member of an aristo-

cratic, if not wealthy, Scottish family,

whose name, while vaguely familiar to

Mungo, appears shrouded in some kind of

mystery. Mungo, too, is Scottish, but he is

the product of a simpler, more austere

childhood, having been orphaned and then

raised and mostly educated by an aunt.

Mungo sees Ian as the embodiment of the

perfect Oxford student--popular, secure,

superior, experienced with women----every-

thing Mungo isn t.

However, they become close friends and

Mungo meets Ian s family: his father, Lord

Robert, a very social, but unsuccessful,

diplomat; his elderly grandfather, Lord

Auldearn, a landowner; and his homo-

sexual uncle David, who lives in seclusion

with a once-prominent writer. Mungo,

having only some vague knowledge of his

own heritage, becomes interested in Ian s

heritage, particularly in another uncle,

Douglas, who had been involved in a

scandal and had died some years earlier.

As Mungo delves deeper into Ian s family

history, questions arise concerning his own

parentage and his relationship to the

Cardower family, and he attempts to

discover who he is.

J. I. M. Stewart writes perceptively

about a young man who, as he searches for

his identity, achieves the self-confidence

and sense of security necessary for truly

indeoendent existence.