The elderly owners of a small cottage settlement near Norwood were perfectly satisfied with their first two tenants—Dr. Wauken with his two daughters and Admiral Denver with his wife and son—neighbors who were calm, respectable, and prosperous. But the move of the third tenant, Mrs. Westmacott, a convinced feminist and women’s rights campaigner, stirred up the peace of the settlement and pushed many events that changed the fate of almost all local residents.