Summary
Moonlit estuaries, clandestine coves and the hiss of an unregistered transmitter form the canvas on which Matrimonial Web inscribes its sly social satire. Revenue mandarin Anderson, a man whose ledgers glow like confessionals, prowls the marshes hunting phantom opium runners while his own hearth harbours the sharpest sleuth of all—Helen, the daughter whose curiosity cuts straighter than customs cutters. Across the inlet, Cyrus Blake, a self-appointed prophet of wounded femininity, preaches a gospel of shotgun chivalry inside a summer palace that drips with antlers and hypocrisy. His heir, Harvey, escapes the masquerade by rowing toward an isle of solitude, only to be trailed by Helen, now convinced the boy’s brooding silhouette masks a trafficker’s soul. A mother on the brink, Mrs. Sanborn, schemes to maroon her reluctant Dorothy in Harvey’s cabin until dawn sanctifies scandal with vows. Yet the true contraband is not the poppy but the bartered bride: Helen, wedged inside the clapboards, intercepts the wireless chatter, reroutes the moral traffic, and topples the grooms-to-be—both legal and criminal—with a single act of eavesdropped heroism.
Synopsis
Revenue Officer Anderson is informed that opium smugglers are operating in his district. He and his assistant, Gregory, are unable to locate a wireless used by the criminals, but his daughter, Helen, offers her aid. Meanwhile, at Cyrus Blake's summer residence, Blake remarks that if a woman is betrayed by a man, he is duty-bound to protect her with his name. His son, Harvey, arrives home from college but escapes the house party by retiring to a nearby island. Helen, finding him suspicious, follows to investigate. At the party, Mrs. Sanborn, in desperate circumstances, plots to have her daughter, Dorothy, spend the night with Harvey on the island, thus forcing a marriage. Thinking Harvey is the smuggler, Helen conceals herself in his cabin and there finds the wireless; she prevents the forced marriage and helps capture the real smuggler.
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