Shadow of a Man is the story of the education of a heart. Francis Adams Chabrier, born in Paris, was brought back to Boston by his mother after his father"s death when the boy was twelve. After nearly fifteen years of living in the Beacon Street house, surrounded by his mother"s and stepfather"s relatives, Francis, aged 26, is still rebellious and almost childish in his insistence on being different because of his half-French heritage.It is the death of Persis Bradford, Francis"s mother, a most unusual woman with an intense feeling for living, that starts the son on his road to maturity. Grief opens his eyes, not only to himself but to Alan Bardford, the stepfather he has always disliked. A summer in Paris is to Francis a journey of the spirit in which he learns, throuhg Solange Bernard, to love, and finds, through love, how to integrate his mixed heritage and how to make use of it. The strange summer, partly idyllic, partly miserable, brings francis to himself adn sends him home to Ann, the young woman whom he has never had the courage to love