Summary
Beneath the crystal chandeliers of a Gilded Age manor, a restless heiress with mercury in her veins trades her mother’s gilded cage for a moonlit waltz of larceny and longing. Phillipa Renwick, all sparks and spangles, coaxes a wolf in dress-uniform—Captain Chantry—into a clandestine masquerade, unaware that his eyes already appraise her mother’s famous pearls more hungrily than her own reckless heart. While Errica, the married elder, conducts a sultry tango of adultery with Ralli, a velvet-clad predator from Buenos Aires, the manor’s mirrored corridors refract secrets like light split through a prism. Chantry, fingers quicker than conscience, filches the heirloom necklace; Phillipa, in a gambit of sisterly sabotage, slips into her sibling’s assignation, trading places like a pawn promoted to reckless queen. A yacht bobbing in the midnight harbor becomes the stage for a rescue that pirouettes from danger to contrition: the jewel thief returns both the pearls and himself, shackled by love rather than iron, promising a future scrubbed clean of shadows.
Synopsis
Society matron Mrs. Fanshaw Renwick entertains lavishly at her posh home. Living with her are her two daughters, Phillipa, a madcap eighteen-year-old, and her married sister Errica who is having an affair with Ralli, a designing South American. When Captain Chantry arrives with an impressive letter of introduction, Mrs. Renwick welcomes him while Phillipa falls in love with him. On the night of the masquerade party, Phillipa induces Chantry to take her to the party in disguise, because her mother will not permit her to attend. The captain, in reality a jewel thief, readily complies, believing it will provide him with the perfect opportunity to steal Mrs. Renwick's famous pearls. Chantry's scheme succeeds, and in the midst of the excitement over the missing pearls, Phillipa decides to substitute herself for her married sister at Errica's rendezvous with Ralli, in the hope of breaking up their affair. Errica begs Chantry to save Phillipa from Ralli's designs; and the thief, who has fallen in love with the madcap younger sister, risks capture to rescue her from the South American's yacht. After saving Phillipa, Chantry confesses his crime, returns the pearls, and vows to lead a clean life thereafter. Phillipa, forgiving his past, promises to wait for him.
