The two sisters Norah and Magdalen live in peace and contentment, looked after by their governess, Miss Garth. Magdalen likes nothing better than to read at her window while her personal maid combs through and through her long hair. She finds herself a talented actress and falls in love with Frank Clare, the good for nothing but handsome son of a neighbour, whom she entices into the play. And then the sisters experience sudden death of their parents leaving them with no property, no rights and no name as a result of a legal defect with their inheritance.