Mrs. Sam Baker

Mrs. Baker's husband died after a short illness, leaving her and her child well provided for but also leaving compromising papers in the hands of his executor, who now finds himself responsible for the widow's welfare. She is a silly little woman by his own account, pretty enough to embody his idea of feminine perfection, and her arrival in Washington sets her adrift among the capital's social and political currents. Her situation quietly raises the question of how a woman with money, beauty, and no protector navigates a city where every friendship carries an interest.