The story opens as Obi Okonkwo, a young Igbo man, is tried for bribery. Obi remains indifferent throughout the process but becomes tense when the judge wonders how an educated and promising man like him could be corrupted. Even though his mother’s death and Clara’s disappearance “dulled his sensibility,” he almost cries at the judge’s words (1).

Mr. Green, Obi’s boss in the civil service, talks at a bar with other European men and claims that Africans are “corrupt through and through” (2). He wonders if Western education for Obi was worth it.

Meanwhile the Umuofia Progressive Union has an emergency meeting to discuss Obi’s case. The Union had paid Obi’s scholarship for studies in England. The men think that Obi destroyed himself for a woman. They call him inexperienced, because men never accept the bribes themselves. They remain divided as to whether they should help Obi but know that he is their only “son” in a European post.

Obi’s full name is Obiajulu. His parents are Christian converts and he has four sisters. His father, Isaac, is a catechist who teaches the elements of Christianity. Obi was granted a scholarship for university first.