Kate Barrington, a Chicago social worker at the turn of the century, tries to balance her nontraditional role and professional success with the traditional values of the time. This 1914 suffrage novel is based in part of Katherine Ostrander a social worker who lived with the Peattie family. Kate works with a variety of women from professionals to women in a settlement house. The novel reflects the changing role for women and empathizes the influence of women on civic and economic conditions.