The story begins when Rose comes back from a long trip to Europe. Everyone is well altered and as a joke, when she arrives home, she lines up her seven cousins to take a long look at them, just as they did to her when they first met. Rose Campbell, the heroine of the story, is sweet, kind, pretty, and ambitious. She is an heiress just come of age, and struggles with the many suitors she attracts by learning to judge love versus those who regard her only as a good match.