The story follows a bereaved young woman who leaves her family home to work and to find independence, becoming involved in friendships, a romantic engagement complicated by questions of consent, and debates about sexual morality and self-ownership. Interwoven with personal episodes are discussions of industrial reconstruction and cooperative living, and characters explore practical schemes for economic and domestic reform. The narrative combines intimate domestic scenes with polemical argument to advocate equal freedom, bodily autonomy for women, and communal approaches to household and labor as part of a broader vision of social transformation.