Caveman Long Biceps courts cavewoman Lithesome using the direct method, force, while Lithesome's father, Hard Muscle, opposes the brutish union. Centuries later, during the American Civil War, Prudence Alden leaves her Boston home to tend to her wounded brother in the South and falls in love with Frank Warren, a Rebel whose father, Colonel Warren, places considerable obstacles in the lovers' path. Just as Long Biceps overcomes Hard Muscle and wins Lithesome, so Frank defeats the colonel and gains Prudence. In 1915, Marian Gordon aspires to a career as a novelist, but when she is told by a hard-nosed publisher, John Rogers, to get out and learn about life, she takes a job as a maid in his household. While studying life, she has a romance with John's reckless son Jack and wins not only his heart, but the father's as well. A bestselling novel follows.