Set in St. Augustine, Florida, the novel follows Fanny Berrien, a young woman torn between a passionate, impetuous suitor who urges elopement and a stable, affluent admirer favored by her mother. She confides in her adolescent friend Aimée while weighing love, social expectation, and financial security. The narrative mixes sunlit Southern settings and genteel boarding-house scenes to examine feminine agency, family pressure, and the comic complications that arise from secret plans and miscommunications, presenting a light romantic comedy of manners centered on choice and consequence.