Mrs Ames revels in her position of superiority as she reigns over the merry-go-round of dinner parties in her small town. It is all part of an attempt to recapture her youth, into which category falls her husband ten years her junior. The horror for Mrs Ames comes when she discovers she has been replaced as the object of her husband's affection. Mrs Evans becomes a rival not just for her husband but for the position of queen bee within the town, and so decides to organise a masked costume party for the whole community, in an attempt to regain her throne, and thus, her man. E. F. Benson has conjured a witty expose of middle-class society.