Cecilias elder daughter Dorothy (b. 1865) marries the rising young Liberal politician and future Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey, but dies tragically young in a carriage accident. Grey is devastated, though the marriage, at Dorothys wish, has remained unconsummated, a fact not revealed by the diaries for the sake of propriety. Ida (b. 1869), the tearaway younger daughter and her mothers favourite, is irresistible to men and when she finally marries chooses a dissolute libertine of vast wealth and is disowned by her sister. When the disastrous marriage eventually fails, Idas treatment by the lawyers, anxious at all costs to avoid scandal, leads to her having to rely on her father to put a decent roof over her head. Cecilias own life, where the story begins, reveals fascinating insights into the terrifying expectations placed upon a young debutante in the mid-19th century. Though Cecilias marriage to a Northumbrian squire 17 years her senior is a happy one, underneath her outward conformity beats a passionate heart which leads her into two love affairs, one with a man half her age, the artist and future art critic Roger Fry.