He is Oliver Blayds, the great Victorian poet. His son-in-law is his secretary, and his youngest daughter his nurse, and the whole household is carried on entirely in the shadow of the great man. Blayds dies, but before his death he confesses to Isobel, the youngest daughter, that he is a fraud. Seventy years before he had lived and starved with a friend, the author of the poetry upon which the fame of Blayds rests. The real poet had died, and he, Blayds, had taken the poems and published them year by year as his own. After the funeral Isobel tells the secret to the rest of the family. With great knowledge of human nature, Mr. Milne shows the effect upon each individual.