It was published in late 1931 by McClelland and Stewart (Canada), Frederick A. Stokes Company (USA), and Hodder and Stoughton (UK) under the title Aunt Becky Began It.

The book was not as financially successful as Montgomery's earlier works, most notably the Canadian author's highly popular Anne of Green Gables series, as it was released after the Wall Street crash of 1929.

[1] Parts of the book were adapted from a short story that Montgomery had released earlier: "A House Divided Against Itself" which appeared in The Canadian Home Journal in March 1930.

A widow with no surviving children, she has been considered the unofficial head of the clan (the extended Dark & Penhallow families) for some time and is known to all of them as Aunt Becky.

The clan have a love-hate relationship with her levees, because they fear her sharp tongue, but derive a perverse enjoyment of seeing other members writhing under her digs and slams.

Margaret then sells a first edition of The Pilgrim's Progress that she inherited from Aunt Becky and uses the money to buy a house for herself and to adopt Brian, an illegitimate and lonely orphan who is largely neglected by the family.

In the end, Dandy Dark, the person in charge of the jug, confesses that his pigs have eaten Aunt Becky's final instructions.