George F. Babbitt is known as a respectable businessman by all of his acquaintances. He resides in a city called Zenith, which is an appropriate name for the city, since everyone who lives there considers it the acme city of the whole nation. In this bustling city, a successful realto like Babbitt is revered and honored, but if a person is not an upstanding businessman, he might be shunned by fellow businessmen who are strictly Republican and cannot see the world through anyone else's eyes.

     Babbitt is an efficient, prosperious realtor. He enjoys the respect from his workers and the dominance that being a man demands from his wife and children. But even though he enjoys being the boss, he also has an urge to discard all responsibility for a while, so he and his friend Paul Riesling take a vacation together and generally just lay around, do a little fishing, and play some poker. Paul reveals to Babbitt that his wife, Zilla, is rather annoying. They are reluctant to go home, but they return anyway. Talking with Paul makes Babbitt realize that no one understands him, least of all his unloving wife.

     Babbitt discovers later on that Paul has shot his wife and that she may not live. Zilla does recover, but Paul is sentenced to three years in prison. Without anyone to understand him, Babbitt's self-esteem plummets, and he becomes depressed. The shooting of Paul's wife has quick moving action and makes for a good climax.

     As a result of Paul's absence, when Babbitt boards a train, he finds that he has no one to sit with. He recognizes only one person, Sir Gerald Doak, a well-known supporter of liberal, socialist ideas. Babbitt sits with Doak for lack of anyone else to sit with, and they engage in conversation. Since Babbitt is a naïve person anyway and even more so now that his self-esteem is at a nadir, he decides that he is going to become more liberal and open-minded. They discuss strikers, and though Babbitt once believed that all strikers were troublemakers and ought to be shot, he now begins to take their side, because that is the opinion ofthat Doak supports.

     Babbitt's wife, Myra, goes out of town for a while, and he is left alone with his daughters. One day in his office, he gets a call from a woman named Tanis Judique, who wants his help in finding a good apartment. Babbitt becomes infatuated with her instantly and, since his wife is out of town, there is no one to stop him from going out with her. He had once belonged, before Paul's imprisonment, to a club known as "The Boasters' Club," but after he met Tanis he began to go out to parties with her and her friends, known simply as "The Bunch." When his wife comes back, he reaizes he must stop seeing Tanis. He becomes estranged, feeling as though he doesn't belong anywhere. He explains to Tanis why he can't see her anymore, and she is forced to accept his reasons.

     Some of Babbitt's former friends ask him to join the "Good Citizens' League," a prestigious group of upper-class Republican businessmen; he refuses and is shunned for it. He tries to explain his situation to Myra, but she doesn't understand, and she complains of a mysterious pain in her side which causes Babbitt to call the doctor. He then realizes how much he loves her. All of Babbitt's former friends hear of his wife's illness, which has been diagnosed as appendicitis. They send gifts, which is more than "The Bunch" would have done, and Babbitt realizes who his true friends are. They again ask him to join the "Good Citizens' League," and this time he joyfully accepts, marking his lapse back into conformity. This is a let-down for readers, but some more happy times are thrown in at the end: Babbitt's son gets married, and the President reveals his middle name to the "Good Citizens' League": George Follansbee Babbitt.

[My comment: I got a B (87%) on this, and said I explained the character well but didn't express the importance of the events described to the literature.]