The four series follow Grace Harlowe and her friends through high school, college, abroad during World War I, and on adventures around America.
The group becomes friends with boys in their acquaintance: David Nesbit, Tom Gray, Hippy Wingate, and Reddy Brooks, forming "The Eight Originals."
Following graduation, Grace rebuffs offers of marriage for "what she had firmly believed to be her destined work," [2] managing Harlowe House at Overton.
After the High School series, she goes to study in a Conservatory of Music, but returns to a more prominent role in the Overseas and Overland Riders books.
She is often lonely at home and this leads her to adopt Mabel Allison as her foster-sister in Grace Harlowe's Junior Year at High School.
Tom Gray: He first meets the circle of friends in Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School.
"[4] The Grace Harlowe Overseas Series, in particular, was written to translate world events to a generation of young girls.
"The democratic foundations of both public and private education in these series are directly connected to the formation of each character's personal integrity and to her status as a representative of socially and morally acceptable American girlhood.
In the plot-driven series, heroines such as Marjorie Dean and Grace Harlowe are already nearly paragons when their stories begin .
The protagonists in The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale or The Grace Harlowe at Overton College series were rewarded for behavior that would have brought censure upon the heads of actual readers if they were to initiate such activity in their own communities.
"[9] Whether Grace's life might have been lived out by a real girl is debatable, but certainly, her story is one that was not told just a few decades prior.
Given their limited publication dates, books in the Grace Harlowe Overseas Series seem to be among the most difficult to find in any condition, and often bring the highest prices.
Altemus even occasionally cross-referenced series, as when Madge Morton makes a cameo appearance in Grace Harlowe's Problem.