Eden, the poet, a reluctant student of law and longing with all his soul for escape to Europe, meets a mining broker called Kronk He is promoting the shares of the Indigo Lake Mine and Eden undertakes to sell some to his family Even his old grandmother is persuaded to invest but each buyer does so in secrecy In the midst of all this excitement unfolds the young love of Piers and Pheasant and a complicated affair between Dilly Warkworth and the Master of Jalna