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An American steamer bound for London and the story is centered on a small group of acquaintances on board, primarily on a 30 year old American woman intending to marry a man she doesn't want. Her flirtatious fling with a young man on the ship, perhaps a last chance to escape her situation, brings on gossip and ridicule and has a disastrous ending. James, as in much of his writing, contrasts the new America and the old Europe and the changes and differences in culture and moral tradition.