It is the tale of two brothers with radically different philosophies of life. For most of the story, the reader is meant to sympathize and admire the enterprising Dan Oliphant, but as one gets to the climax, one understands that this is not a simple success story of an idealistic entrepreneur. We see a likeable young man who plunges everything he has into his business only to lose virtually everything--his wife, son, business, and even his life-- by the end. The surviving characters at the end are reasonably happy, but the happiness is bittersweet. The family has been broken and there has not been a complete reconciliation. The town has prospered and grown substantially, but has become a dirty, noisy, industrialized city that has forgotten the quiet elegance of its recent past.