Patterson Greeves, a noted scientist and academic, is retiring to his family manse to write a book. But on arrival, he finds two letters, one from each of his daughters, announcing their imminent arrival. One plans to visit and the other to live with him. He panics: though a man of many accomplishments, he has been an abysmal and absent father.

The eldest, Silver, is the embodiment of her beautiful mother, his child bride who died. In his grief, he had entrusted the baby's care to his in-laws. Her arrival in his life now is a balm to his soul.

Then there is 14-year-old Athalie, the child of his scheming second wife whom he divorced after two years. Her advice in handing over the girl to his permanent care is: "She has your stubbornness but she's not so bad if you let her have her own way in everything." Everything about Athalie offends the straight-laced Greeves: she is a flapper who wears outlandish clothes (bare arms! silk stockings!); she uses cosmetics and smokes cigarettes; she refuses to go to school and looks upon the old family retainers as slaves to do her bidding. Her father has long blamed God for the misfortunes in his life - a God he professes to no longer believe in. Where is God now to guide him in controlling this impossible child?

Speculating over the drama in the Greeves mansion is a cast of busy-bodies who will be familiar to Grace Livingston Hill fans. Gossip was the engine of early 20th-century small-town American life ... and Athalie provides plenty of fuel!

Original publication date: 1923