Subtitled "a comedy of no manners", the play is about a brash young man courting the daughter of an elderly billionaire, who is pondering how to dispose of his wealth after his death, a subject that was preoccupying Shaw himself at the time.

[1] The play refers to recent political and scientific developments, notably the policies of the 1945–1950 Labour government and the invention of the atomic bomb.

In London, the family of billionaire Bill Buoyant are debating how to hold on to his billions after his death, as they believe that the new Labour government will tax it away.

They discuss the fact that Buoyant's oldest daughter is a black sheep, as she was born to their father's first wife before the family had money, and so behaves like a poor person, having learned to work.

Trebitsch had made it "more Germanically serious" in the words of Stanley Weintraub, and Shaw revised it drastically with the help of his assistant Fritz Loewenstein to reintroduce his characteristic light touch.

Hans Guggenheim wrote that it was a "conversation-piece whose scanty action seems accidental and unconvincing.... Mr. Shaw could doubtless have written a spirited and amusing essay instead of this not very gripping play.

We thought that the actors did their best to breathe some real life into the phantom-like figures of the play, and were amused by the fireworks of Shaw's bon mots, but not very much impressed, and the evening resulted in what someone called 'manifestation of respect.