A history and contemporary cultural commentary by author and traveler Clement. The history includes extensive quotations from other sources, which Clement wove together with her own observations and romantic commentary. After recounting the history of the city from 324 to 1895, Clement includes descriptions of St. Sophia, the antiquities of the city, shops and bazaars, the habits of Turkish ladies (probably upper- and middle-class women), funeral customs, birth, circumcision, marriage customs, "superstitions" and other Islam-specific cultural practices, and finally a chapter on contemporary education.