Carson Kirkpatrick doesn't like the way the world is going. People are lazy and stupid. Worse, they are unkempt and bad-mannered. Something must be done, and he born to power and privilege is just the person to do it.
Law school drop out Mark Boston has passed out on a park bench when Carson finds him and decides to make him over. The results are dramatic. Mark rebuilds his life and becomes a successful author, forever indebted to the man who saved his life.
Janet Musgrave doesn't share Mark's enthusiasm. After Carson discovers her sleeping in a downtown doorway, he forcibly enrolls her in his "School of Life," located high in the Colorado rockies. But she is a reluctant student. She wants to be released and she wants to be released now.
Mark and Janet's lives intersect through their mutual friend Troy, and Carson's hidden identity begins to emerge. As the facts about Mark's radical transformation and Janet's mysterious disappearance begin to rapidly coincide, a tragic accident threatens Carson's entire enterprise along with his hope to change the world one person at a time.