Tragedy 4 Acts
New York 1932
The American civil war is just drawing to a close as Christine Marmon, the disillusioned wife of General Ezra Marmon, is discovered by their daughter Lavinia having an affair with the family's disgraced cousin Capt. Adam Brant, commander of a clipper ship.
Lavinia and her mother have always hated one another and Christine is forced to agree to give up her lover on pain of exposure by her daughter. Christine sends Brant away, but decides to murder her husband as soon as the General returns from the war, leaving her free to rejoin the young captain. When the General does return, he has been changed by the horror of war into a much more loving, open character, and his once overpowering vigour has been undermined by a heart condition.
Just as he and Christine retire to bed on the evening of his return, she admits her affair, in a successful attempt to induce a heart attack. When the attack comes, Christine ensures it will be fatal by substituting a sleeping draught for the medicine he should be given.
Her treachery is discovered by Lavinia, who decides to avoid scandal by murdering her mother in turn.
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