Isabel Dalhousie the protagonist of this series of books is the editor and owner of of a journal of
moral philosophy. In this book in which she is asked to help a woman,Jane find her birth father as she
was adopted and taken to Australia in infancy.
Isabel carefully considers carefully each step she takes to help Jane. This is the appeal of the book to me. To think carefully about the things we do so that they are done morally. I think I should do that myself.
Isabel finds a father for Jane and all are happy. Then she discovers that that man is not Jane's father. Now what should Isabel do? She tells Jane and Jane already knows that this is not her birth father. The man who is her father is not a sympathetic person. Jane is left for herself to decide
to meet him.