The narrative centers on Miss Sarah Sinquier, an effete and theatrical young woman living in a cathedral Close, whose restless imagination and stage-affected performances animate a cast of clergy, family, and fashionable neighbors. Episodic scenes blend camp pastiche and playful mimicry of exotic and romantic types with satirical vignettes about parish ritual, social ambition, and domestic tedium. The prose relies on ornate, fragmentary dialogue and decorative description to lampoon manners and the performative aspects of faith and society.