A story of stern parents rearing a family of girls. The conflict comes when the elder daughter takes her affairs in her own hands. She does as she pleases, at first quietly and without the knowledge of the parent, then when it is known to her parent, she tells him to jolly well like it or jump in the lake. After a series of dramatic incidents she paves the way for her younger sister and younger brother to make their own happiness and in the bargain she converts the father into the new way of ruling by love and understanding rather than by a strict course of "Don'ts."