[1] The novel follows the story of Esther Vassal, a young actress, who marries an older man.
A writer in The Advertiser noted that the book "is what the slang of the day calls a 'problem novel,' and the writing is—appropriately we might say, somewhat hysterical.
The whole story is pervaded by aa unpleasant—almost a painful—tense of the morasses which underlie the social life of the day.
"[2] The reviewer in The Critic referred to the book as "a fine piece of work", but also noted that it was "womanish and neurotic".
Mrs. Praed has turned out capital work in the past, hut; at present she is evidently 'out of form.