"Can a woman desire and recoil from a man at the same time? Bruce Ransom made Tamar Brooks feel so burningly alive, so drunk with love, she could deny him nothing. She forgot that she intended to set her cap for wealthy Charles Putnam, forgot all her plans! Yet even in the throes of passion with Bruce, Tamar's soul was in torment. Unable to shake off the virus in her blood, Tamar finally married the young artist. After which she spent her days posing for him in his luxurious housekeeping studio, and the nights in a shabby furnished room, which he often deserted to keep rendezvouz with other women in his 'working quarters'"