This is the bittersweet story of a young New England woman in the mid-19th century who is hemmed in by the social conventions and attitudes of the day. Lance Bardeen travels to Boston from Amherst to stay with relatives. While she appears to be a "genteel lady, " she becomes passionately involved in a hopeless love affair, and is no longer a sheltered Victorian girl.

This is the bittersweet story of a young New England woman in the mid-19th century who is hemmed in by the social conventions and attitudes of the day. Lance Bardeen travels to Boston from Amherst to stay with relatives. While she appears to be a "genteel lady, " she becomes passionately involved in a hopeless love affair, and is no longer a sheltered Victorian girl.