Written by Shaw in 1909, "Misalliance" takes place one summer afternoon in the conservatory of a large country house in Surrey, England. The "mismatch" is a decidedly odd couple: lusty Hypatia—the daughter of a new-money father who made a bundle in the underwear business—and her fiancé, a brainy aristocrat. Hypatia is fed up with the stuffy conventions that surround her and the hyperactive talk of her free-thinking, philandering father. Enter a dashing aviator and a mysterious Polish acrobat, instantly complicating the question of who will wind up with whom in this comedy of money, morality, and stuck-up manners. More than just a comedy, "Misalliance" is also an examination of Shaw's ideas on marriage, socialism, and the "new woman" struggling to emerge from Victorian constraints.