The story is divided into three epochs, "Spring," "Summer"and "Autumn" three great passions in a man's life belonging respectively to his youth, his maturity and his middle age. Of the three women who successively inspire these three passions, the first might almost have been his mother, the second was of suitable age to be his wife, and the third could easily been his daughter. Such is the substance of "The Dark Flower," a curiously interesting and probing study of man's passions and woman's weakness.