Before long they are shouting at each other across the drawing room, much to the horror of their families. Matters complicate when Griffin's younger sister, Helena, returns to Cassandra's home and asks to be involved in the suffragette cause. Against Cassandra's better judgment, they attend a meeting and on the way home are accosted by two men who steal Cassandra's handbag. Helena proves to be made of stern stuff, and will not be dissuaded from joining the cause. Soon other, more sinister events take place.
Someone is out to destroy the suffragettes by whatever means necessary.
Griffin and Cassandra are so carefully drawn they are almost larger than life. Griffin, who finds all his preconceived notions of womanhood challenged by this defiant beauty, is at first resentful, then confused, then besotted. At last, a woman who can match his stubbornness and his sense of adventure with one of her own. Cassandra, thirtyish, must rearrange her own notions of love and romance now that she has met a man who will not back down, but in fact thrives on their heated exchanges. The mystery was a little less engrossing, though quite adept.