Summary
In the opulent, candle-kissed corridors of the Rogers mansion, Somerset Carroll—ostensibly a philanthropist—drops a verbal bombshell: he would shelter a fugitive woman, scandalizing an audience perfumed in old money and even older secrets. Later, amid leather-bound volumes and ticking clocks, a trembling girl materializes, begging sanctuary; Carroll obliges, spiriting her to his townhouse where masquerade melts into revelation—she is Helen Rogers, orchestratrix of a prank. Yet the jest curdles when Carroll peels off his own mask, confessing he is “The Magnet,” a society burglar who has gagged and bound the authentic Somerset in a cellar, the better to loot the Rogers vault under cover of charity galas. Helen, electrified rather than horrified, shadows the imposter through moonlit gardens and smoke-wreathed speakeasies, shielding him from the bloodhounds once the real Carroll gnaws through his ropes and sics the police on the usurper. In a finale stitched with chiaroscuro and moral vertigo, Helen’s loyalty to the criminal eclipses her allegiance to blood, fortune, or law, allowing The Magnet to vanish into urban legend while she remains behind, a self-willed outcast amid her own gilded debris.
Synopsis
At a reception given at the Rogers mansion in his honor, Somerset Carroll surprises the guests by averring that he would give aid to a female convict reported to have escaped. Later, alone in the library, he is appealed to by a young girl who confesses to being pursued by the police, and he takes her to his own house. There she reveals herself to be Helen Rogers, playing a game with him on the advice of her guests. He then declares himself a crook, holding the real Carroll prisoner, with the intention of robbing the Rogers mansion. She follows and shields "The Magnet" from the police, the real Carroll having escaped and notified them, and through her interference he eludes his would-be captors.
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