As the nineteenth century draws to a close the upper middle classes, with their property and propriety, are a diminishing section of society. The Forsytes are deliberately blind to this fact, surrounding themselves with a self-righteous conventionality and a determination to maintain the status quo. Soames Forsyte struggles to uphold a moral code in the face of the social revolution resulting from the Great War and his wife's extraordinary but disruptive beauty. A dignified but pathetic figure, he is the thread that runs through this first volume of Galsworthy's master work.
