Summary
A tapestry woven with threads of estranged affection and insidious deception, "The Discard" unfurls the poignant saga of Doris Wynne, a young woman raised in the shadow of her mother Alys's absence, their bond mediated solely by legal missives. While Doris finds conventional bliss in marriage to the affluent Keith Bourne, her mother, Alys, is embroiled in the treacherous world of international swindling alongside the nefarious "Python" Grant. Following a particularly ruinous scheme, the criminal duo resurfaces in America, inadvertently targeting Keith, now a wealthy heir. Alys, oblivious to her victim's identity as her son-in-law, becomes an unwitting pawn in Grant's latest con, orchestrating a fabricated affair to extort Keith. The ensuing legal skirmish, settled by Keith to preserve his wife's peace, escalates when the swindlers attempt a "follow-up," ultimately revealing their machinations to Doris. The ensuing confrontation between mother and daughter, facilitated by their historical legal intermediaries, plunges Alys into a horrifying realization: her latest prey is her own child's beloved husband. In a breathtaking act of self-sacrificial atonement, Alys guides Doris to trust Keith, then vanishes, delivering Grant to justice before her own tragic demise, a final, anonymous act of redemption that leaves her daughter and son-in-law forever unaware of the profound, devastating truth.
Synopsis
Doris Wynne, at boarding school in France, is hardly acquainted with her mother, most of the dealings between them handled by a firm of lawyers. So when she falls in love with the brother of a schoolmate, she obtains her mother's consent through the attorneys. Alys Wynne's reasons for seeing so little of her daughter are that she is the companion in crime of "Python" Grant, international swindler. Having ruined a young nobleman and causing him to commit suicide, the pair escape to America. Doris, the daughter, in the meantime, is happily married to Keith Bourne, a young American. An uncle leaves him a million dollars and they decide to return to the United States. Grant and Alys discover Keith and cultivate him. That he is the husband of Doris is unknown to the mother, who is still young and beautiful herself. Grant pretends to abuse his wife and Keith comforts her. A suit for alienation of affection is the result. Bourne settles for $40,000 rather than have his young wife misunderstand him. But the swindlers try the "Follow-up" and when Keith refuses to be led further they telephone his wife and tell her the story. Through the attorneys she asks her mother to come to her. Alys goes and hears the story. She is thunderstruck to learn that her victim is the husband of her daughter. She advises the younger woman to believe in her husband and disappears. She tells the police where to find Python" Grant and next day the happy couple read in the paper that the woman accomplice of the swindler was found dead. It means nothing to them.
