Times change, but human nature remains the same. That's a commonplace truth. A man and a woman attracted to each other today feel exactly what was felt at all times in human history. Cambridge and Boston are the settings for this story of two sisters. One strikingly beautiful and willful, the other with the unusual name of Purdita is lovely, but not striking. Mrs Wingate, their mother proudly reflects on them to her son Bernard, who has recently returned from studies at Oxford.