She takes to the streets, sightseeing and sleeping under moonlight by the Charles River. Finally despondent, she resigns herself to a life of homelessness, wondering "what she might have done to have come to another end."

Finally, Henrietta finds some good fortune, as she comes upon an "Old Vagabond" sitting on a park bench who has lost his glasses. The search proves "bootless," but she walks the president of the "Great University" home--and by recognizing his references to Hamlet and Oedipus Rex earns his respect.

Henrietta promptly gains admittance to the law school, finishes first in her class, and ends up on the U.S. Supreme Court.

The story's adult tone has fueled speculation that it's not just for kids. Henrietta spouts lines like "Sir, you see before you one who, like our Sainted Lincoln, burns to serve through the medium of the Law..."

Illustrator Elizabeth Dahlie's drawings clearly place Henrietta at Harvard, as she approaches the steps of Widener Library or walks the University president to his home by The Charles Hotel, but those closely involved with the book downplay its political implications.

Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz says the book has a "nice, light message which could be interpreted politically," but he says he does not think Mamet's story is directed at Harvard specifically. Rather, he says, it is a jab at elitism in general, as represented in universities and the Supreme Court.

"I think it was a light jab," says Dershowitz, who is quoted on the book's back cover. "It was very well intentioned."