Woven through the house is the story of the fictive Huguenot Jervis family, silk weavers who lived at the house from 1725 to 1919.  Each room evokes incidental moments in the lives of these imaginary inhabitants.  The journey through the house becomes a journey through their history, as they fall from powerful to destitute over the span of five generations.  This is a parallel of the degradation of the East End neighborhood, as well as the British Empire itself.