Harold MacGrath was a novelist, short-story, and screen writer. He wrote at least a novel a year, had short stories in theSaturday Evening PostandLadies Home Journal,and became one of the first well-known writers to work in film. "The one definite idea I have in writing stories," said MacGrath, is to afford an agreeable, pleasant hour or two to my readers. I wish to amuse them, to make them wish that they, too, might have lived as this or that hero, in this or that land, probable or improbable. I prefer sunshine, mirth, buoyancy, and I believe most readers prefer the same. Grown-up people never wholly lose their love of fairy tales, and grown up fairy tales have been the scheme of most of my novels."
The Goose Girlis one such, taking place in an imaginary German principality. The Grand Duke of Ehrenstein's daughter has been missing for years, and he blames neighboring Jugendheit. War may result. Enter Gretchen, the beautiful goose girl, who can read, write, do sums, and loves music. Is she more than she seems? What will happen between the American consul Carmichael, and the charming Princess Hildegard? It's the time of Bismarck, and the air is dark with plots.