In 1880 pioneering doctor Mortimer Granville, sacked from various hospitals for challenging his superiors' outmoded methods, gets a job with Dr Dalrymple, who relieves female patients' frustrations - or hysteria - with pelvic massages which allow orgasm. The handsome young doctor attracts a large female clientele and gets engaged to Dalrymple's studious younger daughter Emily, but after the constant massaging brings on a carpal injury he is sacked. Fortunately an enterprising inventor friend has come up with a power operated feather duster which will soon be transformed into a vibrator and make Mortimer a fortune. Along the way he also realises that his heart really lies with Emily's older sister Charlotte, an outspoken suffragette who runs a home for disadvantaged women in London's East End.