Miss Ruth Hawthorn helps support her fatherless family the only way she can: doling out love advice in a local newspaper column under an assumed name, The Swan. When she receives a lucrative request for an in-person consultation from someone signed “O,” her brother persuades her to go to London with him, teaching him what he needs to know in order to survive the short appointment. But when “O” moves up the time of the rendez-vous and Ruth’s brother is nowhere to be found, she is forced to take matters into her own hands.