When Jim leaves England to begin his life as a sailor, he dreams happily of the adventures wating for him at sea. He sees himself as the brave man who always doew his duty, just like the heroes in the sea stories he read as a boy. When danger comes, he will be ready for it. But danger does come, and Jim is not ready for it. He is the first mate on board the Patna, an old ship taking 800 passengers across the Indian Ocean. When the accident happens and it is time for a brave man to do his duty, Jim fails to act like the hero of his dreams. Soon, the word "coward" is whispered around all the sea ports of the Eastern seas. Only one man believes in Jim. Marlow tries to help him find a new life, and in later years he tells the story to his friends. It is the story of Jim's search for his lost honour—a journey into the dark places of the soul, where dreams and fears move like shadows across the face of the moon.

Lord Jim is a novel by Joseph Conrad originally published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine from October 1899 to November 1900. An early and primary event is the abandonment of a ship in distress by its crew including the young British seaman Jim. He is publicly censured for this action and the novel follows his later attempts at coming to terms with his past. 

Joseph Conrad was born in the Ukraine in 1857 . His parents, ardent Polish patriots, died when he was a child, following their exile for anti-Russian activities, and he came under the protection of his tradition-conscious uncle who watched over him for the next twenty-five years. In 1874 Conrad travelled to Marseilles, where he served in French merchant vessels before joining a British ship in 1878 as an apprentice. Eventually he settled in Kent, where he produced within fifteen years such modern classics as Youth, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, Typhoon, Nostromo, The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes. He continued to write until his death in 1924.