The book is a semi-autobiographical novel by V.S. Naipaul. The story is set in Trinidad and is about the life of Mohun Biswas, a Hindu man who is trapped in a cycle of poverty and bad luck. Biswas grows up in a poor family and is constantly trying to escape his circumstances. He eventually gets a job as a journalist, but his career is cut short when he is fired. Biswas then takes a job as a teacher, but he is soon fired from that job as well. Biswas eventually marries into a wealthy family, but his wife dies in childbirth. Biswas then moves into a house that he has built himself, but it is soon destroyed by a hurricane. Biswas is left with nothing and must start all over again.