Dorothy Hare, a repressed clergyman's daughter, experiences a sudden psychological break that thrusts her from a life of rigid domestic servitude into the harsh reality of the British underclass. Dorothy attempts to navigate the brutal physical and social constraints of poverty after losing her memory, facing hunger, homelessness, and the exploitation of the labor market. The narrative follows her struggle to reconcile her former identity with her new, precarious existence, utilizing a third-person perspective that shifts between her internal turmoil and the external squalor of her environment. The story examines the logical consequences of social displacement and the fragility of individual agency when stripped of class status.

Discussion often centers on the novel's departure from Orwell's later, more polished political allegories. Readers frequently highlight the stark, unvarnished depiction of poverty as a defining feature of the text. Critics often debate the effectiveness of the experimental stylistic shifts, particularly the inclusion of a play-script format within the prose. Many observers note that while the book is less frequently cited than his major works, it remains a vital study of the author's evolving social consciousness and his interest in the lives of the marginalized.