CHAPTER 1: The teachers in the school attended by Déolú, Chief Saba's son, use the students to farm more often than necessary. It is the new principal who now limits each class' farm work to its Agric period, to the delight of many students and their parents. The first principal of the school is Mr Pọ̀jù, who is transferred after spending only 2 months. Next is Mr Àjàgbé, who dies after spending 3 months. The 3rd principal is Cleric Ògúndélé, who is retired after spending only 2 months. It is 8 months after this that the school gets the principal who reduced the students' farm work.
CHAPTER 2: Mr Àlùkò studied CRS before doing his national youth service in Port Harcourt. His wife, Àníkẹ́, is very supportive during his long spell of joblessness. Láyí and Àlùkò frequent Ibadan countless times before Àlùkò gets his employment letter as a teacher with the help of Ọsọbùú. Àlùkò promises to link Láyí too to Ọsọbùú for help in getting the job.
CHAPTER 3: The road to Àlùkò's school from Ilesa is bumpy. The students (and even some teachers) are unmannerly and not properly dressed. When Àlùkò tells Láyí his experience, Láyí openly envies him, saying he has been to 13 schools without getting an endorsement letter. He has to bribe a certain principal with 50 naira before getting the letter.
CHAPTER 4: Three weeks into Àlùkò's stay at Àjọdá Grammar School, the principal (Mr Fìdípọ̀tẹ̀) holds a staff meeting, where he allocates classes and subjects to the teachers, appoints school prefects and exhorts the teachers to be hardworking. One day, during a students' football match, the vice principal (Mr Fìjàbí) badmouths Mr Fìdípọ̀tẹ̀ to Mr Àlùkò (who secretly identifies him as the real problem). Àìná (Mrs Àlùkò) agrees with her husband's viewpoint on this .
CHAPTER 5: Mr Àlùkò does not tolerate any nonsense from the students, to the delight of Mr Fìdípọ̀tẹ̀. The other teachers feel that he will calm down with time. Many parents complain about him but the principal supports him.
CHAPTER 6: The teachers order the students to cut grass ahead of the military governor's visit round all the LGAs in the state. As Mr Àlùkò is apportioning each student's section to him or her, some girls plan to bewitch him into dating them. Some boys also plan to place charms on his chair but he is unharmed by it. While Símbì is pouring water on Mr Àlùkò's chalk-soiled hands after a lesson one day, her love charms work on him and they start dating. Many other teachers have several girlfriends among their students.
CHAPTER 7: During the school's Mock SSCE CRS exam, Símbì is caught cheating and says Mr Àlùkò leaked the live questions to her. He also faces charges of going for further studies without government permission. This 2nd charge requires him to refund his 6 month's salaries but is eventually resolved.
CHAPTER 8: Láyí prepares Àlùkò for his interrogation over Símbì's matter with the right mock questions and answers. As a result, Àlùkò scales the hurdle and the cheating students are punished. Later on, Fìjàbí confesses to being behind the 2nd charge to punish Àlùkò and Fìdípọ̀tẹ̀ for their "arrogance".
CHAPTER 9: The people of Àjọdá are unhappy over the merger of their school with that of Ìjokòdó, near Oko-
Alábà. This is because only the JSS classes will be left in Àjọdá while Ìjokòdó takes the SSS classes. Ìjokòdó is 2 km away from Àjọdá. Though the Ìjokòdó Grammar School started 4 years earlier than the Àjọdá school, the latter school is more developed. This demotion therefore pains the elders of Àjọdá. Fìjàbí expects Fálànà (the Ìjokòdó principal) to be the overall principal of both schools. However, Fìdípọ̀tẹ̀ and Fìjàbí are retained as the principal and the vice principal respectively, while Fálànà and his deputy are posted to Asípa and Ọlọ́ọ́dẹ.
CHAPTER 10: Fìdípọ̀tẹ̀'s relocation of students between both towns work, unlike Fálànà's earlier attempts before his transfer. However, Fìjàbí is a thorn in Fìdípọ̀tẹ̀'s flesh.
CHAPTER 11: Láyí visits Àlùkò and recounts his ordeal in his own school. "The schools board posted Apara as principal without transferring Olútáyọ̀ away first. Apara used his being an indigene of Kújọ̀ọ̀rẹ́ town to badmouth Olútáyọ̀ to the townspeople. As a result, the people came to foment trouble in the school. The principal wasn't around then so they attacked some teachers. Ògúnníran was hospitalized after the attack while the rest of us were taken away to safety in a woman's car".
CHAPTER 12: At his grandfather's funeral, Àlùkò discovers that Fìjàbí is his second cousin. From then on, Àlùkò uses the opportunity to advise Fìjàbí over his poor relationship with Fìdípọ̀tẹ̀. However, Fìjàbí turns deaf ears to all his advice.
CHAPTER 13: Two weeks to the beginning of the second-term exams, 2 inspectors and 4 auditors from Ibadan besiege the school. They discover that Fìdípọ̀tẹ̀ is innocent of the charges (of collection of illegal levies and leaking live questions to a female student) levelled against him by Fìjàbí. Instead, Fìjàbí himself is discovered to have been borrowing money from the school account without repayment and planning to abort a pregnancy for Wẹ̀mímọ́, a female student. As a result, Fìjàbí is retired without any pension or gratuity after 28 years of service.
This novel teaches us against unbridled ambition and rancour.
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