Summary
In the biting chill of 1926, Barbara Brown is a woman whose striking beauty serves as a cruel irony against her absolute destitution. Clinging to her last dime, she infiltrates a high-society New Year's Eve bash hosted by the enigmatic Nan Adams. The night is a blur of champagne and the predatory gaze of J.B. Hardiman, a man who collects youthful beauty like rare porcelain. When the sun rises, Barbara finds herself in a surreal vacuum: Nan has vanished, and the domestic staff, blinded by her poise, accept Barbara as their legitimate mistress. What follows is a fleeting, desperate masquerade of luxury that inevitably crashes against Hardiman’s transactional desires. Forced into a corner when her identity—and her very clothing—is stripped away, Barbara adopts a masculine disguise, trading her cursed beauty for the freedom of a vagabond existence.
Synopsis
Youthful and beautiful, Barbara Brown finds her charms a curse. With just one dime left, she goes to a New Year's party given by mysterious Nan Adams. Here she attracts the wealthy host, J. B. Hardiman, a connoisseur of youth. But in the morning Nan awakes to find Nan gone and the servants accepting her as their new mistress. For a brief time she revels in the luxuries of her new life, but soon she calls at Hardiman's offices for a showdown. The situation becomes embarrassing when he forces unwanted attentions upon her and the next morning her clothing is gone. Escaping in men's clothes, Barbara goes off adventuring.
