Based on a short story Flavien: Scènes de la vie contemporaine by Henri Rivière, Tenants tells of a widowed Englishman, Sir Frederick Byng, his son Norman, and his ward Mildred Stanmore.
After many complications including some minor fisticuffs, Mildred and the returned Norman will marry, Claude learns the truth about his parentage and forgives his mother, and Eleanor refuses Sir Frederick's offer of marriage.
Based on the hopelessly outmoded idea of a "compromised" woman and far too encumbered with frenetic stage business, Disengaged collapses under James' misguided efforts to keep things lively.
Deprived of the interior monologue and intense analysis of consciousness that James made such a large part of his fiction, the plays in this book do seem superficial and unconvincing compared to his narratives.
Although James fell under the spell of the theater from an early age, he never mastered the art of presenting vibrant characters and significant drama in dialogue-only form.