Summary
A single gas-lit waltz, half-glimpsed through cigarette haze, brands Ray Chapman with the silhouette of a masked woman whose name he cannot coax from the brassy air; later, a bleeding good-Samaritan act lands him in the candle-scented sickroom of the very same Frania Caravalle, now unveiled yet unremembered. Oblivious, he signs a dynastic engagement contract with her iron-willed father, sealing a betrothal to a bride he still fails to recognize, thereby igniting Frania’s humiliated fury. She colludes with Jacob Holnar, the spurned wolf in white tie, to stage a lethal revenge, but the conspiracy misfires, burying Ray’s loyal friend Jim Barker instead and pinning the murder on the bewildered groom. A rope tightens around Ray’s throat beneath a righteous sky; salvation arrives in the thunder of hooves and the belated epiphany of a woman whose vengeance dissolves into desperate absolution.
Synopsis
Ray Chapman becomes intrigued with veiled Frania Caravalle at a dance, but he is unable to learn her name. Soon afterward, he attempts to help a robbery victim, is injured, and is taken to the Caravalle home, where he is nursed by Frania. In his dazed condition he neither recognizes Frania nor remembers their encounter; therefore, when Ray agrees with Francisco Caravalle to become betrothed to his daughter, he still does not recognize Frania. She is infuriated and plots with her hated former suitor, Jacob Holnar, to kill Ray. Instead, Ray's friend, Jim Barker, is killed, and Ray is suspected of that murder. Just as he is about to be lynched his horse drags him away, but Frania, who now understands the situation, arrives to save him. Holnar confesses, and the lovers are united.
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