Amelius Goldenheart, the hero of this story, is expelled from a Utopian community in New England and finds himself in London. His story is dominated by a number of women, all of them in some way a "fallen leaf", whom he tries to rescue. One of them is the reason he was expelled from the community in which he lived, another the wife of his only acquaintance, a young prostitute, and his fiancé. Trying to help where he can and at the same time trying to navigate this unfamiliar English society is testing both Amelius as well as the women he meets. - Summary by Carolin