Plot summary: Vera Glenarvon is engaged to the "lion" of the season, Hailsham, who suddenly informs her that he must break off the engagement. He and a man called Cassilis are together when she comes upon them, and instinct tells her that Cassilis is responsible for the rupture; he does not deny it. Her object thenceforth is to wreck the life of Cassilis as he has wrecked hers. But under remarkable circumstances she gradually begins to find that Cassilis and not Hailsham is the lover of her choice, and she learns why it was that Cassilis stood between her and Hailsham. She saves his life from the latter, who seeks to take it, and rewards him with her own love.