The story concerns the tangled web into which Cora leads a number of people when she meets and immediately sets her cap for Valentine Corliss, who has motives of his own in paying his attentions to her—he wants her to use her influence on her father and suitors to get them to invest in a doubtful business scheme. In Cora's shadow is her quiet older sister Laura, who is secretly in love with Richard Lindley, one of the young men that Cora has charmed. Though Laura knows her sister for what she is, she still manages to love her devotedly and tries to help her where she can. Also in the mix is mischeivous thirteen-year-old brother Hedrick, who adds the comic touch and does some meddling in his sisters' affairs, with sometimes disastrous results.
