Set in Joyce's native Ireland, the story follows life of a young man Stephen and
his transformation from child to artist. In five chapters, we are taken through
Stephen's early childhood in Ireland and confinement at boarding school, his
dalliances with theatre and hiring prostitutes, his retreat from sensory excess
into religious devotion, his retreat from religious devotion into aesthetic,
ascetic excess, and, ultimately, his retreat from Ireland and fellowship in
favour of destiny.