It records the plight of a relatively poor girl from the English gentry who captures the attention of a very wealthy man by claiming to be an heiress; although he disbelieves her, he is amused by her presumption and character.

Following her beloved papa’s teachings, she impetuously defends those in need: a horse mercilessly beaten on the streets of London, a housemaid whose jaw is swollen with toothache, a climbing boy whose feet are scorched to force him up the chimney, a small mongrel dog tortured by a gang of louts.

The books ends with her encouraging dear Robert (Mr. Beaumaris) to offer a job to Leaky Peg, a “doxy” she met near “the corner of Duck Lane, Tothill Fields.”

‘When she is trying to convince me that she is up to every move in the social game, she contrives to appear much like any other female, but when, as happens all too often for my comfort, her compassion is stirred, she is ready to go to any lengths to succour the object of her pity.

If I marry her, she will undoubtedly expect me to launch a campaign for the alleviation of the lot of climbing-boys, and will very likely turn my house into an asylum for stray curs.’Heyer may well have been influenced by Jane Austen, even though the two writers approached British society from different perspectives, as discussed by Aja Romano at Vox.

Arabella Tallant grew up in a vicarage amongst a large family of modest means, similar to the heroine of Austen’s 1813 publication, Pride and Prejudice.

Mukul Kesavan of The Telegraph observed similarities between the character of Arabella and many of Heyer's other Regency heroines: while they all travel to London to find wealthy husbands, they do so on their own terms.

Kesavan said, "The remarkable thing about Heyer’s Regency novels is the way in which her heroines manage not to dance the marriage minuet, their awkward refusal to 'fit' the model of the eager, conforming debutante.

Her heroines aren’t revolutionaries or even proto-feminists: they accept the mannered marriage market as the way of the world, but they work to make room for themselves and their natures within its constraints.

Nor is there the least sign of the robustness and vitality that made those masters' creations come to life... Arabella and the Nonesuch are stereotypes from The Ladies Monthly Museum.

"[4] Ness disliked the ending, especially as it seems that Beaumaris' will and superior social standing will be employed to overrule his new wife's criticism of London Society and willingness to aid the downridden.