A young factory worker shoulders family responsibility and accepts a brief country visit that exposes her to polite society and its sneers. She attracts the sympathetic attention of a gentleman boarder while a fashionable young woman and other residents respond with jealousy and condescension because of the heroine’s laboring background. The narrative follows her attempts to maintain dignity amid petty cruelties, the slow development of mutual respect and affection, and the social tensions that force characters to confront pride, class prejudice, and the possibilities of reconciliation.