The story begins in 1846, at Combe-Raven in West Somerset, the country residence of the happy Vanstone family. In the first scene, the reader is introduced to Mr. Andrew Vanstone, Mrs. Vanstone, and their two daughters Norah, age 26, happy and quiet, and the irrepressible Magdalen, just 18, beautiful but with a steely jaw. They live in peace and contentment, looked after by their governess, Miss Garth. Magdalen likes thing better than to read at her window while her personal maid combs through and through her long hair. Private theatricals! is the cry as she signs up for a performance of Sheridan's The Rivals. She finds she is a talented actress and falls in love with Frank Clare, the good for thing but handsome son of a neighbour, whom she entices into the play. They are to be married, their fathers agree, and then the bottom drops out of their world. Mr. Vanstone is killed in a local train crash, and Mrs. Vanstone dies in childbirth. The girls discover from the lawyer, Mr. Pendril, that their parents have only been married a few months, and the wedding invalidated their will (which left everything to the daughters). The daughters have name, rights, and property, and the entire family fortune is inherited by Andrew's older brother, Michael Vanstone, who has been estranged from the family for many years. With the help only of their loyal governess Miss Garth, the two girls set out to make their own way in the world. From the second scene onwards, the character of the vel completely changes. It becomes comic as the confidence tricksters try to outdo each other. Scene two is set in York, where Magdalen enlists the help of Captain Wragge, a distant relative of her mother's and a professional swindler. He helps get Magdalen started on the stage in return for a share of the proceeds. His wife Matilda, a huge clown of a lady, has to be kept in check. Her head is full of recipes and dressmaking. Scene three is in Vauxhall Walk, Lambeth. Magdalen, having earned some money, forsakes the stage and plots to get her inheritance back. Michael Vanstone has died and his only son, Noel Vanstone is sickly and looked after by his housekeeper, Virginie Lecount, a shrewd woman who hopes to inherit his money. Magdalen goes to Lambeth disguised as Miss Garth to see how the land lies, but Mrs. Lecount sees through her disguise and cuts a bit of cloth from the hem of her brown alpaca dress as a keepsake. Scene four is in Aldborough, Suffolk, where Magdalen tries to carry out her plot to regain her inheritance by marrying Noel Vanstone under an assumed name, with Captain and Mrs. Wragge posing as her uncle and aunt. Wragge and Lecount plot and attempt to outdo each other. In the end, Lecount is sent on a false errand to Zurich, and Magdalen and Noel are married. Captain Wragge arranges the marriage on condition that he will never have to see Magdalen again once it has happened.