Harry Bensham is happily married to Anna Brigmore , who once served as his children's governess. His daughter Katie, too, is soon to be happily wed. Is it possible that the Mallen curse which decreed that the Mallens brought only turmoil and grief to those whose lives they crossed, is no more? But Barbara Mallen, who has married Harry's son Dan, is disturbed that their third son, Ben, unlike his blond twin brothers, is dark like her and has the Mallen streak in his hair, as well as having the Mallen temperament. Brooding and unable to show affection for this moody, violent boy, she allows her passionate nature to flow in a forbidden, direction-toward Michael Radlet, whose love she sought and lost in The Mallen Girl. Nor do Katie and Brigie escape further tragedy, all the harder to bear after their brief period of unlooked-for happiness. The Mallen curse threatens to coninue full force into the third generation. Ben bears the brunt of it, from the chilling aftermath of his mother's ruinous love affair to the sorrows visited on his family by World War I. When he cracks under the weight of these burdens, it seems foreordained that he will be yet another victim of the Mallen lot.