Clara Longcope, the beautiful daughter of a well-connected Yale family, strikes out on her own, becoming a successful career woman. She marries, has love affairs, gets divorced, marries again, takes over the running of a major magazine, and defends her inheritance from a rich husband against an unscrupulous stepson. Auchincloss`s novel chronicles a life of privilege that is also a surprisingly contemporary portrait of a savvy independent woman born well before the feminist movement had done the work of changing women`s lives.