Summary
On a sun-scorched polo lawn somewhere between Newport and nothingness, Donald Van Wye—patrician bones brittle as spun sugar—tumbles from his pony, a crimson bloom seeping through his white flannels. The prognosis arrives like a death-knell in four-four time: six months, perhaps less, if the lungs keep drowning in their own pink froth. Arizona is prescribed as though geography itself were pharmacology. Enter Tom, the kid brother whose moral compass spins like a roulette wheel wired to a jazz drummer’s heartbeat—he’s shackled to Maizie, a footlight siren with a laugh that jingles like coins in a Salvation Army kettle. Donald, part stoic, part martyr, part traffic cop, tries to unpick the knot; failing that, he marries the girl himself, a contract scribbled in self-immolation ink. The desert, all lapis nights and bone-white days, becomes their Eden in reverse: health returns with the coyote’s howl, love swells like a monsoon in a salt basin, and the camera drinks every shimmering particle until the sky itself seems lactating with light. Then matriarch Van Wye descends, a frost-bitten duchess hauling society’s lead-weighted rulebook; Maizie flees into the sagebrush, barefoot, guilt-peeled, and Donald—miraculously no longer dying—gallops after her, a resurrected man chasing the only mirage that ever tasted real.
Synopsis
Seized with a fainting spell during a polo game, Donald Van Wye is given six months to live and told he must go to Arizona. His brother Tom, an irresponsible college youth, is wired to come home and take Donald's place. When Tom arrives, Donald finds that his little brother has committed himself to an actress named Maizie. Donald pleads with the actress to give Tom up, but when she refuses, Donald marries her in order to save his brother. The couple go to Arizona where their love ripens, and through Maizie's prayers, Donald regains his health. Mrs. Van Wye then comes to visit and tells Maizie that she is preventing Donald from assuming his rightful place in society. Crushed, Maizie starts across the desert alone, and when Donald learns of his mother's dreadful behavior, he follows Maizie and begs her to stay.
