Geneva, 1904 - Newlyweds Katherine Dexter and Stanley McCormick stand for their picture on the grounds of Prangins, Katherine's chateau in Switzerland. She is twenty-nine, the first female graduate in the sciences of M.I.T. and a leader in the budding Women's Movement. He is the youngest son of Cyrus and Nettie McCormick, reluctant heir to a fortune built on the Reaper. Socialite and millionaire, they are the match of the year - and they seem to have fallen in love.

But Stanley isn't well. He sees things, hears voices, finds himself unable to control his violent outbursts toward women. Shortly after the marriage, he is diagnosed as a schizophrenic and sexual maniac, and his doctors - the best money can buy - lock him away at Riven Rock. He is forbidden the company of women - above all, his wife.

Katherine can only watch her husband and wait, crouched outside among the begonias with her binoculars, like a field biologist studying the habits of some rare, wild animal. Yet she returns every year, laden with gifts and news of the outside world, continually hopeful: one day, she believes, one of the psychiatrists she enlists will return Stanley to her, free of demons, a yearned-for lover.

In the hands of T. Coraghessan Boyle, these real characters out of American history are transformed into rich mythic creations whose tortured love and deep sense of fidelity, set against a backdrop of wealth and privilege, will break your heart.