Richard Papen, twenty-eight, reflects that his “fatal flaw” is a morbid yearning for beauty and the picturesque. He describes his bleak childhood in Plano, California—an unhappy home, social isolation, and a growing disgust with what he sees as the rot beneath suburban life. In college he studies ancient Greek almost by accident, drops pre-med for literature in secret, and becomes determined to escape his parents and his town.

A chance rediscovery of a Hampden College brochure leads Richard to apply to the small Vermont school whose images promise a pure, old-world life. After months of financial-aid battles—his father refuses to cooperate and Richard steals tax returns to complete forms—he arrives by bus in Hampden with little money, overwhelmed by the landscape and the campus’s quiet beauty. Assigned to French teacher Georges Laforgue as counselor, Richard learns that the only Greek professor, Julian Morrow, runs a nearly closed, selective program with just five students.

Richard seeks Julian out in the ivy-covered Lyceum, but Julian politely refuses to add him. Richard then observes Julian’s students—Henry Winter, Bunny Corcoran, Francis Abernathy, and twins Charles and Camilla Macaulay—whose wealth, style, and aloofness fascinate him. In the library Richard helps Bunny and the twins with a Greek-grammar dispute; they introduce themselves, and Henry arrives, coolly interrogating Richard’s background and treating him with disdain.

Needing money to ingratiate himself and improve his appearance, Richard tricks Dr. Roland, a muddled psychology professor who employs him, into giving a $200 advance for repairs to an imaginary car. Richard uses the cash to buy shirts and secondhand clothes, then returns to Julian. This time Julian invites him in, charms him into talking (and into embellishing a glamorous Californian past), and agrees to take him—on conditions: Richard must switch counselors to Julian and drop most current classes to follow Julian’s insulated curriculum.

Despite Laforgue’s warnings about isolation and power imbalance, Richard commits to Julian’s program and joins the small seminar held in Julian’s luxurious office. Before class Francis coolly needles Richard, and in the room Bunny jokes while Henry aggressively tests Richard’s reading; Richard lies to avoid humiliation. Julian begins the discussion on Plato’s “divine madness,” arguing that beauty is terrifying and that civilized people crave losing the self, especially through Dionysian ecstasy; Camilla recites a violent passage from Aeschylus in Greek, and the group thrills to the idea that “beauty is terror.” Afterward Richard, exhilarated and intoxicated by the atmosphere, writes about beauty and insanity, then receives a formal note from Bunny inviting him to lunch—while Dr. Roland nearly catches him in his earlier lie.