This is a first hand account of a disillusioned young man who, having travelled round the world studying various ways and religions, finally meets Gurdjieff in New York, and is convinced by seeing the demonstrations of sacred dances that at last he has found the Way he is looking for. The book, compiled from hundreds of pages of notes and diaries, is a record of sayings and doings of Gurdjieff and their impact on the young pupil at that time. It has also a description of life at the Château de Prieuré as experienced by the pupil.
The journal is not an exposition of the theory of the Gurdjieff system; it is rather an account of the cumulative effect on one person of practical work in an authentic esoteric school.