Thus begins Sastrodarsono's life, returning to his village as a newly-appointed schoolteacher, and by virtue of that position, a member of the priyayi - functionary gentry awesomely elevated above the peasantry of his origins. From those most traditional of Javanese institutions-change of name and a virtually, imposed marriage-he moves on with his bride to found a line of modernizing generations active across the whole span of recent Indonesian history...