I waited and worked, and watched the inferior exalted for nearly thirty years; and when recognition came at last, it was too late to alter events, or to make a difference in living.

The novel portrays the demise of a marriage and focuses on "the spirituality of female friendship. Anderson collaborated with Glasgow and provided copies of his speeches for her novel The Builders. " Glasgow stated that her third novel The Voice of People (1900) was an objective view of the poor-white farmer in politics.