He is clever, excels at rugby and has a fine singing voice. From Appleby Grammar school he gains a place at University College London, to study law, shortly after the First World War. Unexpectedly, Tat mixes with art students from the Slade School, who introduce him to a world he never knew existed. One of these, Jane Cranshaw, a beautiful upper class girl, is a medal winning painting student. Tat secretly carries a torch for her. Eventually, to his surprise and delight, Jane invites him to spend the weekend with her at her flat in Fulham, after a heady night of drinking. They fall in love and seem to be perfectly matched. Tat is unaware that Jane has a dark side and is on the rebound from a passionate affair. As a consequence, the apparent innocence of the relationship between the young couple is fatally overshadowed. Nothing in Tat's background prepares him for what is to come. Their seemingly idyllic relationship is torn apart by a succession of emotional hammer blows, which plunge Tat and his best friend Olly Sinclair, into a whirlwind of barely controllable turmoil.
Astonishingly, it is his powerful base-baritone singing voice, which has matured into a true phenomenon, that proves to be his salvation. Because of this, out of the blue, Tat is offered a leading role in Verdi's Requiem, to be performed in public, when he becomes involved with the College Choral Society. He is coached for the part by the choir master. To his delight members of his family are able to attend the second of these concerts. Suffused with pride and exhilaration, he senses that after all, there is hope and redemption within his grasp.