Still obsessed with the memory of his lover, nine years after she died of the Spanish 'flu, the outwardly charming and caring Dr Markham has taken responsibility for her twin children, David and Jessica, while he has entered a marriage of convenience with the plain but wealthy Alice. His fixations are transferred to Jessica as she grows into an attractive girl resembling her mother, and his inherent homophobia is visited on David, who appears effeminate. This account of the oppression of two children in a world of 'respectable adults', and of their desperate attempt to escape it, is not for the faint-hearted.