Appearances

Once rich, now poor, a late Victorian family of the Coeur d'Alene territories, reside in their run-down mansion; replete with peeling paint, weed-laden gardens, and unused land surrounding. The traveling portrait-painter husband now avoids a sadly turbulent marriage with his well-educated wife and her continual attempts to hide dwindling dollars from gossips, on the outskirts of a town where appearances matter.Their five pretty daughters attired in old dresses, dream of good marriages despite their outward shabbiness. In financial desperation and to lift ill fortune towards getting her budding girls married well, the mother abruptly turns their home into a boarding house: a secret lodger scheme passing off foreigners as manservants.Do the sisters welcome strange men moving into their house? The eldest think it dangerous, the youngest two are romantically intrigued, but all agree to disliking the new chores.Besides surviving exhaustive labors of playing servant in her own home, the nervous-wreck lady must rein all in under tight control: to keep sad truths hidden from busybodies, get more work from her daughters, and maintain propriety betwixt her young ladies and male lodgers. Above all, marriages with the Europeans must be prevented.Whilst the youngest two daughters continually flirt with any fellow, the second appears interested in a German gold-hunter, and suddenly, the eldest beauty seems falling for the French cook! Will the papa ever return home to stay? Does the mama even wish him to? And what will become of them all?