Summary
Nancy Page, an effervescent socialite whose days once revolved around gardenias and gossip, is hurled into a moral cyclone when her mild-mannered husband, Richard, becomes the legal scapegoat for his employer, David Davenport, a real-estate Midas now hemorrhaging IOUs like confetti. David’s empire is a paper tiger: contracts bearing Richard’s guileless signature promise a seven-figure payout, yet the coffers echo hollow. At a soirée orchestrated to court the deep yen of Japanese agent Tato Usaki, Richard begs Lila—David’s neglected wife and his own clandestine devotee—to pilfer the incriminating vouchers that could hang him. Nancy, corseted in chiffon and desperation, pirouettes toward Usaki, coaxing him toward a last-ditch development deal. The tycoon’s price is a tête-à-tête inside the moonlit husk of the neighboring house; there, ink meets parchment, then flesh meets force as Usaki bolts the door and lunges. Nancy vaults through casement glass, gown gashed, yet clutches the contract like a battle standard. Back amid champagne flutes and string quartets, David learns that Lila has flung the damning papers into the hearth; his dynasty reduced to ash, he presses a revolver to his temple and pulls the trigger, leaving Nancy with a salvaged future built on someone else’s funeral pyre.
Synopsis
Nancy Page is a frivolous socialite until her husband Richard becomes entangled in his employer David Davenport's shady business dealings. Davenport, a building contractor, had secured Richard's signature on several papers that promised payment of over a million dollars, even though the firm was insolvent. At a party held in honor of wealthy Japanese agent Tato Usaki, Richard tries to convince Davenport's wife Lila, who is in love with him, to obtain the vouchers, and Nancy attempts to charm Usaki into signing a building contract that will save the firm. Usaki and Nancy arrange to meet at the vacant house next door, where he signs the contract but then locks the door and attacks her. Nancy escapes through a window and returns to the party with the contract, while Davenport, having discovered that his wife has destroyed the incriminating vouchers, shoots himself.
