The New Commandment

In the gilded cages of 1920s high society, Mrs. Ormsby Parr is a woman who treats marriage like a corporate merger, having already liquidated three husbands for social capital. Her latest venture involves brokering a union between her stepdaughter and the wealthy, if somewhat aimless, Billy Morrow. To seal the deal, she orchestrates a grand European cruise, a floating prison of etiquette and expectation. However, the plan unravels when Billy, fueled by a sudden burst of rebellion and the earthy pragmatism of his friend Red—a former taxi driver who treats the Atlantic like a New York thoroughfare—jumps ship off the French coast. Their destination is Paris, but not the Paris of postcards; it is a city of artists, models, and the simmering tension of impending conflict. Billy finds himself entangled with Renée Darcourt, a model whose beauty is matched only by the complexity of her relationship with the artist Gaston Picard. What begins as a lighthearted escape from social duty descends into a web of suspicion and class-based insecurity. When the drums of the Great War begin to beat, Billy’s search for identity leads him into the brutal anonymity of the Foreign Legion. It is only through the shared trauma of the battlefield and the sterile quiet of a military hospital that the masks of social standing finally fall away, revealing a love forged in blood rather than bank accounts.