As an unmarried 17-year-old, Lady Slane nurtures a secret, burning ambition—to become an artist. Instead, she becomes the wife of a great statesman and the mother of 6 children. 70 years later, released by widowhood, and to the dismay of her pompous children, she abandons the family home for a tiny house in Hampstead. Here she recollects the dreams of youth, and revels in the present with her odd assortment of companions. Genoux, her French maid, Mr. Bucktrout, her house agent, and Mr. Gosheron, her painter and carpenter. She is also accompanied by Mr. FitzGeorge, an eccentric millionaire who had met and loved her in India when she was young and very lovely. It is here in this world of her own that she finds a passion that comes only with the freedom to choose, and it is this, her greatest gift, that she passes on to the only one who can understand its value.