Robin told only a little of her life, but she kept repeating in one way or another her wish for a home, as if she were afraid she would be lost again, as if she were aware, without conscious knowledge, that she belonged to Nora, and that if Nora did not make it permanent by her own strength, she would forget.

As the second oldest child Barnes spent much of her childhood helping care for siblings and half-siblings. She referred to the rape obliquely in her first novel Ryder and more directly in her furious final play The Antiphon. Her paternal grandmother Zadel Turner Barnes was a writer journalist and Women's Suffrage activist who had once hosted an influential literary salon.

As a roman à clef the novel features a thinly veiled portrait of Barnes in the character of Nora Flood whereas Nora’s lover Robin Vote is a composite of Thelma Wood and the Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. Eliot. Since Barnes' death interest in her work has grown and many of her books are back in print.