Gordon deliberately quits his promising copywriting career at advertising firm New Albion to take a low-wage bookstore job.

Gordon works a shift at the bookstore, brooding over the poor sales of his published poetry collection Mice.

Gordon returns to his boarding house, attempts to work on London Pleasures, and receives no letters from publishers or Rosemary.

Gordon arrives at the Doring literary party only to find the house empty and no guests present.

Ravelston agrees to publish one of Gordon's poems, about a dying prostitute, in his literary journal Antichrist.

Gordon encounters Rosemary unexpectedly on the street, and the two argue bitterly about money, sex, and his poverty.

Gordon borrows money from his impoverished sister Julia to pay for a countryside day trip with Rosemary.

In the woods outside London, Gordon and Rosemary's intimacy is abruptly halted when she realises he has no contraception.

An American journal pays Gordon for a poem, and he insists on treating Ravelston and Rosemary to an expensive dinner.

Drunk at dinner, Gordon forces himself on Rosemary; she slaps him and walks away.

Gordon wakes up in a jail cell and learns he has been charged with drunk and disorderly conduct.

Gordon's arrest and conviction are published in a newspaper, and his employer fires him from the bookstore.

Feeling guilt about depending on Ravelston, Gordon accepts a job running a cheap lending library for Mr. Cheeseman.

Rosemary arrives at Gordon's shop and tells him she has become pregnant.

Gordon discards the unfinished London Pleasures manuscript down a sewer drain and reclaims his old copywriting job at New Albion.

Gordon Comstock deliberately quits a successful advertising career to pursue poetry, taking a low-wage bookstore job and declaring war on money. He struggles to finish his epic poem London Pleasures while his poverty strains his relationship with his girlfriend Rosemary and limits his social life. A countryside day trip and an unexpected payment from an American journal both end badly, the latter leading to Gordon's arrest for drunk and disorderly conduct. He loses his bookstore job as a result of the arrest and sinks further by taking an even worse position at a cheap lending library. When Rosemary tells him she is pregnant, Gordon's ideological defences collapse entirely. He discards the London Pleasures manuscript into a sewer drain, reclaims his old copywriting job, and marries Rosemary, ending his war on money.

Gordon's war on money, from bookstore to breakdown to surrender.

Gordon's grandfather builds a Victorian-era family fortune that is slowly squandered across generations through failed businesses and bad investments.

Gordon attends a series of boarding schools where wealthier classmates bully him because his family cannot keep up appearances.

Gordon and his school friends publish a radical newspaper called the Bolshevik, advocating against the British Empire and for free love.

After his mother's death, Gordon quits the accounting job arranged by his uncle, despite fierce opposition from his family.

With Ravelston's support, Gordon publishes his poetry collection Mice, which earns a good review but sells very poorly.

Gordon repeatedly and unsuccessfully tries to kill the aspidistra in his room by neglecting it and putting salt in its soil.

Gordon receives a publisher's rejection letter and sends Rosemary a dramatic note reading simply, 'You have broken my heart.'

Gordon and Ravelston argue about socialism and capitalism over drinks at a working-class pub.

Ravelston's wealthy girlfriend Hermione physically stops him from offering money to a street beggar they pass together.

Gordon and Rosemary eat an overpriced but thoroughly bad meal at the Ravenscroft Hotel during their countryside outing.

Before boarding the train home, Rosemary stuffs cigarettes into Gordon's pocket and runs off before he can protest.

Gordon's new landlady Mrs. Meakin gives him a sickly dying aspidistra to keep in his squalid new lodgings.

Ravelston visits Gordon's new squalid rooms and argues that nobody can live inside a corrupt society without becoming corrupted themselves.

Rosemary personally approaches Gordon's former employer Mr. Erskine and persuades him to offer Gordon his old copywriting job back.

Gordon and Rosemary marry with only Ravelston as witness, and Gordon insists on buying an aspidistra for their new apartment.

Gordon Comstock's story is rooted in his family's decline from Victorian prosperity to genteel poverty, a history that shapes his bitterness toward money and the middle class. His radical politics form at school, and after his mother's death he abandons a stable career to write, eventually publishing a poorly-received poetry collection with Ravelston's help. Throughout the novel, Gordon's relationships with his sister Julia, his friend Ravelston, and his girlfriend Rosemary are tested by his stubborn pride, his refusal of financial help, and his deliberate retreat into squalor. From a dismal meal at the Ravenscroft Hotel to the dying aspidistra his new landlady forces upon him, symbols of middle-class life pursue Gordon even in his chosen poverty. Ravelston remains loyal throughout, visiting Gordon's squalid rooms and arguing passionately that no one can escape a corrupt society uncorrupted. The novel closes with Gordon and Rosemary marrying quietly, and Gordon defiantly insisting on an aspidistra for their new home.

The people, places, and small moments that surround Gordon's downfall.

Gordon attempts to write London Pleasures, crosses out two lines, and retreats to re-read his well-worn Sherlock Holmes collection instead.

Young Gordon concludes that money-worship has become a modern religion and resolves to refuse all worldly success.

Gordon is horrified by his own promotion at New Albion and makes a deliberate decision to escape the money-world entirely.

While walking to the Doring party, Gordon spontaneously composes new lines for London Pleasures in his head.

After receiving the Dorings' explanation of a date mix-up, Gordon writes an accusatory letter insisting their snub was deliberate.

Ravelston offers Gordon a loan, but Gordon refuses, insisting that accepting money from a friend would destroy their relationship.

Rosemary listens to Gordon rant that all women prefer wealthy men, then calmly tells him his views are palpable nonsense.

Inspired despite the disastrous day out, Gordon composes a new stanza about workers facing winter while fearing unemployment.

Gordon feels completely reborn and reassured simply from having the Californian Review payment in his pocket.

Ravelston pays Gordon's court fine despite Gordon's explicit refusal, overriding his stubborn pride on his behalf.

Rosemary visits Gordon at Ravelston's flat to urge him to take his old New Albion job back, but Gordon refuses.

Gordon discovers he can no longer write poetry at all and quietly abandons any remaining hope of finishing London Pleasures.

Gordon and Rosemary make love for the first time, but afterward Rosemary feels only dismay and cold disappointment.

Gordon borrows a pregnancy book from the lending library and scans newspaper advertisements, privately making up his mind about his future.

Gordon concludes that a civilisation built on greed can still allow ordinary human lives to be transmuted into something nobler.

Keep the Aspidistra Flying is fundamentally a story about self-sabotage, in which every act of rebellion against middle-class values paradoxically reproduces those values in a new form. Gordon cannot make progress on his poetry, refuses loans from friends on grounds of propriety, and sends petty accusatory letters — all while blaming poverty for failures that are largely his own making. His relationship with Rosemary is undermined repeatedly by his pride and his inability to acknowledge that her practical concerns are as legitimate as his ideological ones. Even when fortune briefly arrives, as when the Californian Review pays for one of his poems, Gordon's instinct for self-destruction quickly undoes any advantage. The central revelation comes when Rosemary's pregnancy strips away his ideological defences and forces him to acknowledge what he has secretly wanted all along. His final acceptance of ordinary life is framed not as defeat but as a hard-won understanding that human connection can exist on the other side of money.