Coming Out is as story about a young Irish girl from a moderately wealthy family and her first experiences in society. The story focuses on her forced dependence on a capricious woman of fashion, the development of her love interests, and climaxes in the disastrous obstacles she must overcome. The story takes place approximately 1825 and is set in both Ireland and England. It consists of 2 volumes, the first being about 500 pages and the second about 280. Interestingly, the story is not broken up by chapters, but is written as one long manuscript.
The heroine of the story, Alicia Barry, is daughter to Colonel and Mrs. Barry, a set of Irish landholders with a moderately wealthy income which never seems enough to satisfy the family's expensive tastes. Both parents are presented as foolishly incompetent and unheeding in both the management of their estate and their children. Alicia is first presented to the one of the main antagonists of the story, Lady Donnington, when she is a girl of 14. Despite her young age, the fashionable and wildly popular Lady is enchanted with her extreme beauty and gives her extremely ambitious parents some flippant advice on how to manage her daughter's future course of life. Though to Lady Donnington this advice (along with her wish to "bring her out" when she comes of age) is as quickly forgotten as it is given, the unthinking parents follow it as gospel in the hopes that their daughter's unusual beauty will set her up in future life with a rich and titled husband to fill the family coffers.
By the time Alicia turns 17 and is ready to be removed from the retirement her parents have kept her hidden in, the family fortunes are already in a dire state due to the carelessness of a self-serving older brother. Pinning all their hopes on their daughter marrying a wealthy peer, Colonel Barry mortgages the family's properties and takes out multiple loans to pay for her "outfitting" properly, while Mrs. Barry fenagles an invitation for Alicia to be patronized by Lady Donnington where she will be presented in the very highest London circles. Alicia, meanwhile, due to the sensible and religious instruction received from kindly neighbors and friends, has no real desire to be admired and shown about in public, much to her parent's consternation. It was with these same neighbors, as a child, that she meets Jocelyn Hastings, heir to a family fortune. Jocelyn leaves these guardians when Alicia is 13 to rejoin his uncle, but he continues to be a guiding thought to her throughout the story, despite his long absences.
Once the invitation from Lady Donnington is secured by Mrs. Barry, Alicia finds herself constantly put on display and the subject of uncomfortable adulation and stinging jealousy as her beauty is used selfishly by the older peeress to draw the most fashionable young men to her parties. Early on in the story Alicia meets Lord St. Lawrence, who is to be her primary love interest throughout the novel. St. Lawrence is a wealthy nobleman whose interest in Alicia is first piqued by her beauty but furthered by her gentle and selfless nature. This is exactly the match the Barrys had hoped for their daughter and is especially important as the family's financial situation is quickly coming to a crisis.
After their engagement, Alicia discovers a secret that St. Lawrence had vaguely referred to during their courtship. This secret puts her in an emotional dilemma between marrying a man she doesn’t feel she can trust and meeting her family's expectations. Meanwhile, her childhood companion, Jocelyn Hastings has met a personal tragedy in the loss of his own family's fortune, and he joins the church as a poor curate. His altered circumstances prevent him from declaring his deep feelings for Alicia and resigning himself to see her as Lady St. Lawrence.
Alicia is forced to endure a series of personal and family tragedies that threaten to rob her of both her health and mental stability, all while maintaining her strong principles of right and fairness. Throughout these trials, Joceyln Hastings is working to save the Barry family from the consequences of their financial folly, though unknown to them. By the end of the story, Alicia has overcome many personal and situational trials and emerges a strong and happy heroine with a devoted lover.
Coming Out is an entertaining story but can often be too "prosy" and leave the reader wishing the author had been a little more succinct in her writing. The author often goes into long details about the character's personal thoughts and musings which can become tedious. The author was certainly motivated to impart what she felt to be important moral principles and ideas to the reader, and this could come off as overly preachy. As a love interest, Jocelyn Hastings felt somewhat flat and uninteresting. Overall, Coming Out is a story worth reading, but the reader can certainly skim over many of its prosier passages and still come away with a satisfying story.