Told in the first person by Tom Cutter,  aircraft pilot, engineer, and entrepreneur, the story starts with Cutter’s boyhood – he gets a job with the Alan Cobham “National Aviation Day” flying circus of barnstorming aircraft which take customers up for short joyrides, with other entertainment provided. Cutter meets Shaklin, a boy a little older than himself, half Chinese and half Russian – British subject with a deep interest in religion. When the air circus folds, the two drift apart. Cutter apprentices in aviation engineering and learns to fly. He marries Beryl, a co-worker and soon afterwards he’s posted overseas as a civilian working in military aviation work during World War II. While overseas, he learns his wife has been unfaithful. He is stern, but forgiving, in letters to her, but when she realises that he is soon to return, she commits suicide.  Cutter blames himself and unable to return to his old job or remain in England, he buys and rebuilds a small aircraft and flies it to Bahrain, operating a freight business. In Indonesia he meets Shaklin again, and Shaklin’s brand of spirituality begins to make profound changes, not only for Cutter but for a great many people.