Constance

Sidney Klein is a professor of poetry, a single father with a poor marital record, when he encounters the young, enigmatic Constance Schuyler at a literary party in 1960s Manhattan. A few weeks later, he proposes marriage, and Constance accepts, moving into his dark, book-filled apartment. But the bride is unhappy, tormented by a bitter past. She has a troubled relationship with her father, a retired doctor upstate, and is desperate for the emotional security Sidney can't fully provide. Perhaps she's made a mistake in marrying him. And then comes a devastating revelation, further jeopardizing the relationship. Sidney can only watch and wait, doubting his own moral strength, as Constance becomes reckless and self-destructive, unhelped by the arrival of her dissolute younger sister. But Constance has formed an unlikely alliance with her small stepson, and he may be the only one who can help them now. Constance is the story of one family, haunted by a trauma kept secret for decades. It is also the portrait of a marriage under threat, and the allegiance and the courage that can lead us to the light.