Hannah Tewkley is torn between her work with the city's poor and her husband Samuel's prospering business: a string of oriental teahouses. Their new guests, Alfred, an English philanthropist, and Sarah, a freed slave, are both scarred by the horrors of America's Deep South. The visit begins with the best of intentions, but all four characters find it increasingly difficult to maintain their lofty ideals...

Set amongst Dublin's Quaker community in 1850, but with clear resonances for the present day, The Sugar Wife offers an engrossing examination of sexual politics and political morality.