Not My Sister

Summary

A canvas of chiaroscuro desires, Not My Sister unfurls in a garret where the scent of turpentine mingles with the sour perfume of pawned virtue. Grace Tyler—collarbone sharp as a guillotine—offers her body to the easel and to Michael Arnold, a painter who wields cruelty like a sable brush. Years later, when silk has replaced calico and she has married steel-mill money, the past returns wearing her sister Ruth’s guileless face. Michael, still dripping cadmium egotism, sketched Ruth’s innocence, then tried to peel it like wet paper. Grace storms the studio, midnight cloak snapping like a torn sail, only to be blackmailed by the very man whose ochre smears still haunt her skin. The denouement arrives in a tangle of shadows: John Marshall, husband and cuckold, bursts in searching for truth; steel flashes; Michael’s blood—vermilion against the ochre ground—writes the final brushstroke. Ruth, luminous with remorse, seizes the narrative, confessing a murder that the jury, high on Victorian piety, calls honor defended.

Synopsis

Having to support her impoverished family, Grace Tyler poses for artist Michael Arnold, who seduces his new model and then leaves her. A few years later, after Grace has married the wealthy John Marshall, her sister Ruth, repeating Grace's mistake, becomes involved with Michael. Grace tries to break up the romance, until Michael threatens to expose their own affair to John, who has already become somewhat suspicious. Determined to learn the truth about his wife and Michael, John goes to the artist's studio while Grace and Ruth are also there, then, after a brief struggle, Michael dies from a knife wound. John is accused of the murder, but just before a jury convicts him, Ruth confesses to the crime and the court quickly acquits her because she had been defending her honor against Michael's advances.