Set in one of James' thematic stalking grounds: the Victorian world of 1880s New York high society. Ms. Lucy Carlton, from a pedigreed family of long standing, is married to a crass nouveau riche husband. She feels hemmed in by the stifling codes of female propriety and subservience, and yearns to break free into a more bohemian world. Her father and husband want her to conform to traditional mores, and hand her over to a neurologist to cure her of her "nervous disorder." But what she discovers under hypnosis leads her to unforeseen, shocking experiences; it pushes her into the realm of unfettered passion, and possibly murder.
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