In the twilight years of the British Empire in Burma, bigotry and corruption are the order of the day. When the timber merchant John Flory befriends the Indian doctor Veraswami, he soon finds himself alienated from his British compatriots—and even from the woman he hopes will become his wife—as they cannot countenance the idea of racial equality. Meanwhile, the unscrupulous official U Po Kyin does everything to advance his own station—no matter who he may hurt in the process.

Based on Orwell's own experiences as a policeman in Burma in the 1920s, it presents a shocking and revealing portrait of British colonial society and the terrible effects of empire on both the colonisers and the colonised.