Penelope Fairfax is staying with her mother and Aunt Bess at The Ledges, the summer cottage of their recently deceased cousin Miss Carrie Lenox. She wakes up early every day to enjoy the serenity of the morning, watching boats on the horizon and imagining herself sailing, which she’s always wanted to do. From breakfast onward, her dream is shunted aside and she is plunged into the constant company of her mother and aunt. Both criticize and fret over her every motion, offering to help with meal preparations and chores, but then simply making her tasks less bearable. They throw unprompted derisive comments in her direction and she restrains herself from calling them old egoists and hypocrites, as it was they who once taught her to be unselfish and caring. Knowing she’ll be forced to take on the job of cooking meals, washing up, giving her mother her shot and cleaning bedpans during a vacation when she wans to relax, Penelope asks for their maid to come up with them. Her mother and aunt say it would be a waste of money, however. Defeated, she succumbs to their will, as she always does. The once-thriving summer colony where the cottage is situated has diminished, and the mother and aunt spend most of their time taking long walks to squabble and decry the bad drivers and promiscuous women around them. But when a tea party invitation arises, Penelope finds herself pleasantly surprised by the event. She is surrounded by friendly faces and no one expects anything of her. She simply relaxes and admires the perfect weather and the brilliant flowers whose colors match the ladies’ dresses. Mr. Jackson invites her to come for a sail on his boat, and suddenly she imagines a shipwreck and refuses. The afternoon seems to have turn rancid, the colors sour, the guests gossiping. Back home Penelope tightens her lips against the resumed stream of snubs coming from her mother and aunt, sinking back into the passive torpor of her daily life.