Jon's brother-in-law, Francis Wilmot shows up in London, delivering messages of Jon's love to Fleur, raking up the old feelings of jealousy in Michael. Then follows a society scandal after one of Fleur's parties. One of her guests maligns Fleur in Soames' hearing. He calls her a "traitress" and insists she is shown the door. The fuss that follows is bad enough, but when Soames tries to help he only makes things worse. Poor man, he can't get anything right. He would do anything for his daughter. Things are not going right for Michael either. His support for Foggart and his crackpot theory is well-meant but has the risk of turning him into a parliamentary laughing stock. Michael is such a good person, he tries to help as often as he can but his aid usually goes amiss. Fleur wants to heal her wounds with travel, to go round the world, but as parliament is still sitting Michael is reluctant to leave, however, he manages it that Soames will be her travel partner.

The interlude, Passers By jumps to Washington where Michael has joined Fleur and Soames for the final part of their round the world trip. By chance, Irene, Jon and Ann are staying at the same hotel. Soames suffers as much as he ever has on seeing Irene but his main concern is that Fleur should not meet her first love and endure similar pain.

Galsworthy takes the reader right into the twenties, when life was good for some, and bleak for many. The post-war depression was taking a toll. Although it has soap opera qualities, this is another solid literary episode in the lives of the Forsytes and their extended families while bringing up some interesting policies of the times. ( )