A comic social novel traces the disruptions that follow when a zealous, reform-minded aunt imposes her ideas on a niece and intervenes in romantic choices, provoking resistance from family and suitors. A street collision involving an artist catalyzes a series of humorous misunderstandings, rivalries and awkward reconciliations across two linked parts, as characters navigate pride, social pretension and shifting affections. The narrative balances light satire of contemporary manners and heredity-minded certainties with farcical incidents and humane gestures that gradually disentangle tangled relationships.