The novel follows Mrs. Sên, a widow whose refusal of a suitor's marriage proposal unsettles her circle and exposes tensions between personal resolve and social expectation. Her children — a son relieved and a daughter disappointed — and family friends react, revealing divided loyalties and anxieties about remarriage, respectability, and the legacy of the late husband whose cross-cultural union once provoked scandal. Through domestic conversations and social maneuvering, the story examines motherhood, filial attachment, societal judgment, and the costs of past choices as characters negotiate future security, identity, and the place of tradition versus personal independence.