What's in a Word (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781087938288)

Late in his sophomore year of high school, Bartosz Ulryk and his mom are visited by a New York attorney who tells them he has been instructed by his client to tell Bartosz he has great expectations, in recognition of his last three years of independent study in mathematics. He is to complete high school at Kent School, a high-powered prep school in Connecticut, and, thereafter, be enrolled in Princeton's doctoral program. All expenses are to be paid by a benefactor who shall remain anonymous until that person chooses otherwise.

Bartosz subsequently visits his girlfriend to share this gratuitous plan, only to have Georgiana doubt its ultimate worth, maintaining that Bartosz, with his grades, could go to Princeton on his own, earning a full scholarship, and not have some anonymous benefactor messing in his life.

Georgiana's objections notwithstanding, Bartosz does study at Kent and finds he will, indeed, be better prepared to earn his Ph.D. in mathematics at Princeton. The drawback becomes painfully apparent when he returns home for Thanksgiving, where he and Georgiana frantically try to make up for their time apart. What is more, by Christmas break Georgiana notices changes in Bartosz that go deeper than his losing his Brooklynese accent. For one, he seems increasingly enamored of wealth. Then, upon arriving home for his spring break, he tells Georgiana he now intends to pursue a career in the much more lucrative field of public relations.

Infuriated by this fait accompli, Georgiana reminds Bartosz of his earliest goal of becoming another Einstein. Bartosz facetiously cites Einstein's meager starting salary at Princeton. Georgiana tells Bartosz he has lost the best part of himself and that earning a living by glibly manipulating words to disguise the truth is not only reprehensible, it is a waste she wants no part of.

More than seven years later, a financially successful Bartosz returns home where Georgiana tells him he has, in fact, become the person she foresaw when they separated and demands he get off her world. It is only then Bartosz realizes that in accepting wealth as the measure, he has lost everything of value. Still, a chance for a way back comes from a surprising source.