The author of this semi-autobiographical novel, Mary Butler was born in England and raised in the Anglo-Irish tradition in Co Clare on her family's estate, and later in Dublin. As a debutante at the Vice-Regal court in Dublin in the last years of the C19 she tired of the emptiness of her life and turned to the Gaelic League and the 'Irish Ireland' movement and became an ardent Nationalist. She Gaelicised her name to Máire de Buitléir and became more and more alienated from her 'West Briton' social scene as she mixed with people like Douglas Hyde, Arthur Griffith to whom it is claimed she first suggested the name 'Sinn Féin' for his new political party.