Jasper is attracted to Marian, who loves him passionately, but he proposes to her only when she inherits a legacy of 5000 pounds. When the legacy does not materialise Jasper withdraws. Instead he marries Amy Reardon, the young widow of the writer Edwin Reardon. Edwin is the author of two fine works, but his poverty-stricken existence, his lack of public recognition and his wife's desertion eventualyy drive him to an early grave, in stark and bitter contrast to Jasper's success which comes as a triumph of self-advertisement over artistic conscience.