Missy, her widowed mother and crippled aunt live in genteel poverty, victims of the Hurlingford inheritance policy that gives riches to the male members of the family who heartlessly abuse the women they dominate. The Hurlingfords are the ruling family in the tiny town of Byron, nestling in Australia's Blue Mountains. An unexpected blossoming of Missy takes place when a distant cousin, a divorcee, arrives from Sidney... a tale to delight every woman who has wanted to escape.