Summary
A gilded cage of chandeliers and corsets imprisons Clover Dean, whose pulse beats only for the penniless physician William Dunn while her titled aunt parades the cadaverous Duke Boris like a matrimonial trophy. On the night a waltz is to seal her dynastic doom, the heiress flings her satin slippers into the chandeliered abyss, bolts across rain-slick terraces, and—amid a single sulfurous gun-crack—re-writes her fairy-tale as Grand Guignol. The slain duke bleeds out on topiary shadows; Bucky Raine, that velvet-blazered wastrel, is discovered fondling the smoking revolver like a masquerade prop; yet the ricocheting guilt lands on the idealistic doctor until Rita, the duke’s discarded mistress, spits out a confession as lurid as any penny dreadful ink. Clover emerges from the police van in torn lace, free to marry for love while the mansion’s gaslights dim on a century dying of consumption and corsetry.
Synopsis
Wealthy heiress Clover Dean has three suitors: Duke Boris, promoted by her aunt, Bucky Raine, a wealthy idler sponsored by her uncle, and struggling young doctor William Dunn, who is her own choice. Clover's engagement to the duke is to be announced at a dance, but she rebels before the gathering and refuses to go on with the marriage. Clover leaves hurriedly, a shot is heard and the duke found dead. Bucky Raine, discovered wandering about the garden with a revolver in his hand, is arrested for the crime, but his testimony convicts the doctor as the person who had possession of the gun during the shooting. The doctor and Clover are both arrested for suspicion, but a guilty conscience forces Rita, a former sweetheart of the duke to confess to the crime. Clover then has her own way and marries the doctor.
