Francesca Bassington is a somewhat cold and self-contained society woman who values her home and possessions above all else. She lives in a house that was left to a young, underage heiress, Emmeline Chetrof, and Francesca is free to continue living there until Emmeline gets married. Well contented to continue living there forever, Francesca is trying to find a way to stay in the house, maneuvering with her son Comus, a self-centered young man whose irresponsibility may have been excusable and endearing when he was young but whose flippancy and fecklessness has now become a sore point between him and his mother

Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916), better known by the pen name Saki, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirize Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story, and often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker.