The members of the Umuofia Progressive Union (UPU), a group of Umuofia natives who have left their villages to live in major Nigerian cities, have taken up a collection to send Obi to England to study Law, in the hope that he will return to help his people by representing them in the colonial legal system, particularly with respect to land cases. However, Obi switches his major to English and meets Clara Okeke, a student nurse, for the first time during a dance.