Lucie Marlow was a young, talented, and completely dedicated ballet dancer, well on the way to fame and fulfilment in her chosen world. This might have made things different when she met and married Julian Summerford, who had nothing whatever to do with the world of ballet. The real danger to her marriage, she soon found, however, was to come not from the demands of her career but from the subtle machinations of Julian's jealous and possessive mother. This story of the struggle between three people -- the fragile but spirited Lucie, Julian, torn between devotion to his mother and love for his wife, and Mrs. Summerford, who would stop at nothing to keep her son for herself, makes fascinating reading.