A dark, shadowy meditation on quilt, identity and lost honour, Lord Jim recounts the tragic fate of a self-destructive young British sailor.

Jim, first mate on the Patna, dreams of becoming a hero. But when he abandons ship, leaving its passengers behind, he is stripped of his command. The old sea captain, Marlow, offers him another chance, until Jim exiles himself to a remote Malay state, fashioning a new identity as benevolent ruler of an exotic land - an idyll that then itself comes under terrible threat.