Alison was a child of the slums, without moral background or heritage.

Three men, of diverse character, became part of her life. Colin Yarde is the hero of her childhood and from him she learns much that is good in live; the Rev. William Carris surprises himself by marrying her, but his cold asceticism is no fitting mate for her generous, passionate temperament; Nigel Solway, with whom she lives the life of a tramp, in the antithesis of her husband, in his own words "Completely unreliable", yet still to take her further down the road life.

To each she fives in greater measure than she receives, and through them her character and her emotional life come to maturity. She finds the best when it seems she has come to the end of the road and there is no way forward.