Tragedy 4 Acts
New York 1932
Orin Mannon and his sister Lavinia return to their New England home after a cruise to the South Sea islands, where they had gone when Orin suffered a nervous collapse brought on by guilt over their mother's suicide. Though they had both engineered the suicide, only Orin feels any remorse. Lavinia feels her mother's death only as a liberation, and has changed from a rather pinched, prissy girl into a strong sensual woman.
To soothe Orin, Lavinia attempts to arrange his marriage to Hazel Niles, his boyhood sweetheart, and herself plans to wed Hazel's brother Peter, a long-standing admirer. Orin is too tainted by guilt to carry through with the marriage and determines that Lavinia is unfit for Peter as well. Orin reveals to Hazel both his own and Lavinia's hand in driving their mother to suicide, extracts Hazel's promise to prevent Peter marrying Lavinia, and kills himself in despair. Peter appears likely to press ahead with the marriage at all costs, until Lavinia herself admits to an affair with a native during her stay in the South Seas. Peter abandons her to a life bound to the memory of her dead family.
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