Edith Shaw is engaged to marry the handsome Captain Lennox. After their wedding, they plan to move to Corfu, where he is stationed. Her mother is hosting a dinner party and summons Edith to show the guests the shawls she has in her trousseau. However, unbeknownst to her mother, Edith has fallen asleep in the drawing room. Aunt Shaw asks Margaret, Edith’s 18-year-old cousin, to retrieve the shawls from the nursery and model them for the guests. Margaret speaks briefly with the old nurse Newton, and they lament the end of their time together. Margaret has lived at Edith’s home since she was eight. The night Margaret arrived, she cried herself to sleep, but she eventually adjusted to living with her relatives.

The ladies discuss marriage and complain about their husbands. Just then, Lennox, the bridegroom’s brother, arrives. He and Margaret have an amicable relationship and discuss the flurry of wedding preparation. Margaret tells him that when she marries, she wants a simple wedding. After Edith’s wedding, she plans to return to her home in Helstone, a place she describes as peaceful and idyllic. Lennox pokes fun at her for the dreamy way she describes it.