What is the main conflict in Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza?

Spinoza's Ethics is one of the most difficult books in philosophy. It is notoriously obscure, as Spinoza invents a variety of new terms and attempts to layout the book like a geometric proof. At this period in philosophical history, philosophers were extremely impressed both with geometry and the physics of Newton and Leibniz. As a result, they attempted to mimic these mathematical and scientific methods. Thus, to understand the Ethics, you must be prepared for obscure, mathematical arguments that often hide what is going on. Further, the book is littered with terms that you will be unfamiliar with and ones that you will be familiar with but that Spinoza has given a distinct meaning.