Summary
A high-stakes card game serves as the guillotine for Colonel Francis Fielding’s social existence when the Earl of St. Albans levels a devastating, albeit baseless, accusation of cheating. Within the rigid, unforgiving architecture of Edwardian-era 'proper' society, such an indictment is a terminal sentence; Fielding is promptly excommunicated by his own kin and cast into the outer darkness of public contempt. Seeking a desperate sanctuary, he retreats to the bohemian shadows of Paris, where he finds temporary solace in marriage and the birth of his daughter, Leonore. However, the fates remain unappeased. His wife’s untimely demise leaves Fielding a broken, impecunious widower, struggling to raise Leonore amidst the crushing weight of poverty until he too succumbs to his hardships. The orphaned Leonore is subsequently reclaimed by the icy Lady Mountstephen, her paternal aunt, whose 'charity' is merely a thinly veiled conduit for cruelty. Leonore finds herself an alien in a house of resentment, eventually suffering a second disinheritance. Her trajectory toward total ruin is only arrested by the intervention of Lord Fitzmaurice, whose financial benevolence provides a lifeline. Yet, this act of kindness ignites the pathological jealousy of Lady Norton—who harbors the explosive secret of a clandestine marriage to Fitzmaurice—triggering a cascade of interpersonal warfare and moral reckoning that threatens to dismantle what remains of Leonore’s fragile world.
Synopsis
While playing cards, Col. Francis Fielding is unjustly accused of cheating by the Earl of St. Albans. The charges are considered so serious in that strata of society that Fielding is disowned by his parents and held in contempt by "proper" society. Fleeing to Paris, Fielding marries and fathers a baby daughter he names Leonore. His wife soon dies and he is forced to raise the girl on his own, alone and broke. He soon dies, and Leonore is adopted by his sister Lady Mountstephen, but it's not much of an improvement: the "lady" hates Leonore, treats her badly and finally disowns her. Things look grim for Leonore until Lord Fitzmaurice loans her a sum of money. Unfortunately, that deed arouses the anger of the wildly jealous Lady Norton, who is secretly married to him. Complications ensue.
