Thomas Covenant is a young author whose world is turned upside-down when he is diagnosed with leprosy. After six months' treatment and counselling in a leprosarium, he returns home to find himself alone, divorced by his wife Joan, and outcast from his community. His son Roger has been taken to live with his ex-wife. On a rare trip into town, he is accosted by a beggar. The beggar refuses Covenant's offers of charity, including his white gold wedding band, makes several cryptic pronouncements, and leaves Covenant with the admonition to "be true." Disturbed by the encounter, Covenant stumbles into the path of an oncoming police car and is rendered unconscious.