Terpin Taft is an easygoing, popular boy -- a "good egg," happy to tell people what they want to hear, even if it means stretching the truth a bit. Until the day he meets a stranger on a train and tells the man a consoling lie. The results are so disastrous that Terpin resolves never again to speak or act except by the truth in his heart. But this, too, has disastrous -- if sometimes comical -- results. In fact, his new policy of honesty wreaks such havoc among his friends and family that he finally has no choice but to flee his hometown.

Elegantly and lyrically written, Terpin is a modern fable that emphasizes the importance of being true to one's own values -- no matter what.