She deciphers clues to her clients' personal lives from the often cryptic telegrams they submit to her as she sits in the "cage" at the post office.

An unnamed telegraphist works in the branch post office at Cocker's, a grocer in a fashionable London neighborhood.

Her fiancé, a decent if unpolished man named Mr. Mudge, wants her to move to a less expensive neighborhood to save money and to be near him at all times.

James frequently sent telegrams (over a hundred are still extant)[citation needed] and he got the idea for this clever tale from his experiences at the telegraphist's office.

[citation needed] The unnamed protagonist of In the Cage can be seen as a version of the Jamesian artist, constructing a complex finished work from the slightest hints.

Her decision to marry her ordinary young man—as soon as possible—is a revolt against her discovery that the necessary "hero" and "heroine" she has created from their telegrams-aren't that at all.