The desire for money and romance drives the characters beyond the typical boundaries of their middle class Victorian lives. Lust, deceit, and financial scandals rock their placid world. A classic novel from Doyle about a liberated woman at the turn of the century. Conan Doyle departs quite drastically from his male-centric Sherlock Holmes in Beyond the City; it deals with ideas of women's liberation in Victorian England. Three families are drawn together in the countryside by a series of misfortunes, romantic ideas and intriguing events.