It is 1909, the end of the Edwardian era.
While Seattle, Washington boasts of a 500-room brothel which caters to men’s desires, holding hands is still an entitled privilege of courtship; an etiquette remnant from the Victorian era. The current generation of young women want to be free of whale bone corsets, strait-laced notions that teach proper conduct while in the presence of men, and that beauty serves only to find husbands. The suffrage movement sweeps across the nation and Washingtonian women are in the thick of it.
As is Eleanor, eldest of three sisters and two brothers, Eleanor shares her dreams and worries in a journal, often thinking of her eldest brother, Richard, who is losing his fight against tuberculosis. Fiercely independent and highly intelligent, dark haired beauty, Eleanor, leads a carefree life until, financial family difficulties force her to leave her coveted job in downtown Seattle, for the deplorable position as “domestic” for the despised men who hold the mortgage on her family’s home. In attendance on the last day of the World’s Fair, Eleanor collapses from sheer exhaustion.
Unbeknownst to the fainted young lady, a handsome stranger comes to her aid, carrying her in the company of a younger sister. It does not take long for attraction and affection to grow into deep love and devotion for Nate. Though, imprudently, Eleanor also has a quiet affection for another, her eldest brother Richard.
After his beloved mother died when he was only 13, Nate left home and Seattle, vowing never to return. Yet, fourteen years later he helped build the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific World’s Fair. A few years prior he partook in Alaska’s Gold Rush. Now a man of wealth, he lets people think what they will of his unpretentious modest attire. While contemplating his future, Nate comes to the assistance of a fainted young lady. After depositing Eleanor in a motorcar, Nate’s heart is broken knowing he’ll never seeing her again. He finds his trunk in the hotel’s lobby as vacancies are scarce and bribes high. With nowhere to go for the night, Nate reluctantly stays in the mansion where his father and brothers live. But it is not home and they are as he remembered; cold hearted and verbally abusive.
While Nate reconsiders his future, his stay is miserable. But any plans to leave suddenly changes when a young lady unexpectedly enters his bedroom the next morning. Eleanor, his father’s housekeeper has claimed his heart. However, Nate’ worries that his older brother has an interest in her too. And, while Eleanor is employed at the mansion, Nate slowly realizes that the woman he loves, has feelings for her brother who’s dying of tuberculos
