"At the age of twenty-eight, Isabel has been granted early success as the head of a publishing house. A woman of taste and discernment, she is endowed with enviable wit and a razor-sharp mind. Yet, as the novel opens, we know that Isabel is in desperate trouble." "When Isabel meets James - a handsome, aristocratic, highly talented writer known in equal parts for his sense of entitlement, his drinking, and his habit of changing women with disconcerting speed - she falls for him, despite all her friends' dire warnings. Breaking his past pattern, however, James also falls sincerely in love with Isabel, and they decide to marry. Confounding their friends, they soon become an ideal match, devoted to each other, and doting on their young son. What happens, then, to drive Isabel to her act of insanity?"--Jacket.