As wealthy patrons, players have traveled to the local maid guild in an attempt to hire new staff for their estates.
Each round a group of four maids becomes available to hire. However, each player only learns the identity of half the group. They must then bid for the order to choose new maid staff based on what they know and subtle clues from their opponents' bids.
After bidding is complete, every player learns the identity of all four maids. One by one starting with the player who made the highest bid, players choose who to hire. Of course, the player making the lowest bid will likely end up stuck with undesireable staff, including the incompetent maids in black.
Each hired maid is placed around a player's estate board to fulfill jobs such as cooking, cleaning, and accounting. Each maid has several icons denoting their strengths, which can earn extra points if they match their assigned job.
When the deck of maid cards runs out, or a player is out of money, the game ends. Players add up respect points from the maids they hired as well as bonus points from fulfilled jobs around their estate. However, the player who hired the most maids in black loses their social standing and is eliminated from the game. The remaining player with the most respect points is the winner.