Neither beautiful in her looks nor brilliant in her manner, Catherine Sloper is an unlikely object for a sublime passion. Yet this is precisely what she appears to have inspired in the breast of Morris Townsend. But then who knows the secrets of the human heart? Love, the centuries have shown, is the strangest, most unpredictable of emotions. And, if money is at stake, even more unpredictable. For Catherine is the only daughter of one of New York"s wealthiest physicians. And Morris, though handsome, is both idle and impoverished.