Emma McChesney is that rare bird of her sex, a traveler from city to city selling petticoats at the wholesale level. She is both shrewd and kind, intense in her selling power, an innovator, a keeper of perfect records—in short, a born businesswoman. In her travels, she must contend with boorish male drummers, indifferent buyers, changing fashions, and the monotonous diet of the road. How pleasant it would be, she thinks, to settle down in New York as a company executive. But it is 1913 and the men in her firm are quite happy with an all-male leadership. With all the will at her disposal, Emma McChesney sets out to change that.