Summary
A gilded cage of marble corridors and hushed drawing-rooms imprisons Babette Corbin, whose diamonds catch the light yet fail to refract any warmth back into her marrow. One languid afternoon a slick-paper magazine falls open to a smudged halftone: George Cameron, brush-wielding vagabond, eyes burning like fresh coke embers beneath a rumpled felt brim. That scrap of ink becomes her compass; she steers her Rolls-Royce and her husband’s orphaned niece, Florence, toward a lake-adjacent caravanserai where Cameron’s shabby studio reeks of turpentine and unbelonging. Babette unfurls checkbooks, champagne weekends, a whole constellation of attentions; Cameron—half moth, half coyote—hovers, then bites. Into this perfumed crucible drifts Joy Ayres, sun-browned choir-girl whom the village pastor covets with prayer-card piety. Four hearts lock like mismatched gears: Babette craving adoration, Cameron craving easel money, Florence craving escape, Joy craving a horizon wider than scripture. A single moonlit rejection snaps the flimsiest cog—Florence walks into black water, her white dress ballooning like a failed parachute. The splash ricochets through every character: husband Corbin smells scandal’s acrid smoke, Cameron’s swagger curdles into self-disgust, Babette’s mirror flashes back a Medusa of vanity. In the hush after the funeral Cameron does not flee; instead he folds his easel, marries Joy, and paints nothing but small, quiet still-lifes that no magazine ever reproduces. Babette returns to her marble halls older, emptier, and unpredictably kinder to footmen, while the lake keeps its own counsel, lapping against the pier where the magazine photograph once blew into the water like a surrendering flag.
Synopsis
Wealthy Babette Corbin has everything but her husband's love. When by chance she sees in a magazine a picture of a handsome artist, George Cameron, she is determined to win his love. Babette and Florence, her husband's niece, then spend their summer at a hotel near Cameron's country home; and Babette, with flattery and wealth, soon wins his affection. Complications arise when both Florence and Joy Ayres, a young girl pursued by the village pastor, are also captivated by Cameron. Babette's husband finds out about the affair and is annoyed by the thought of the notoriety it may bring him. When Florence is rejected by Cameron, she drowns herself. Babette realizes the baneful effect her behavior has on others, and Cameron--also affected by the tragedy--settles down with Joy.
