Summary
In “If Marriage Fails,” the narrative weaves through a tumultuous marital landscape, where Joe and Eleanor Woodbury’s union is strained by Eleanor’s clandestine homosexual affairs and Joe’s discomfort. Their visit to Nadia, a mesmerizing crystal-gazer, sets the stage for a series of events that test the very foundations of their relationship. As Joe and Nadia’s mutual attraction blossoms, Eleanor’s world crumbles with the revelation of her deception, leading to a climactic confrontation that challenges societal norms and personal ethics.
Synopsis
Joe and Eleanor Woodbury lead an unhappy married life: she is fond of the gay life, and he is not. Together, they visit Nadia, a lovely young woman who tells the future by gazing into a crystal ball, and Joe and Nadia fall in love at first sight. Although Eleanor is having an affair with Gene Deering, a lounge lizard, she wants to stay married to Joe and therefore tells Nadia that she is pregnant. The diminutive crystal-gazer promises to stop seeing Joe, and Eleanor resumes her illicit relationship with Deering. Following a raid on a roadhouse where they are carousing, Eleanor and Deering are involved in an automobile accident and she is slightly hurt. The doctor who attends her later informs Nadia that Eleanor is not expecting a child, and Nadia telephones Joe to tell him of his wife's double deception. Joe then tells Eleanor that he is going to divorce her and goes to Nadia.
