The narrator of the story, Sophie Hughes, holds the view that it matters to be living a life which is honest and worthwhile. Many she meets are like the dwellers in Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah; paying lip-service to high ideals, but inwardly corrupt and self-serving.

Events turn out favourably for her, which is perhaps a proof of the rightness of her outlook and finally she escapes from the big-city Babylons to tend sheep.