In which Barbara, caught in the whirl of social functions and the uneasy attentions of Harbinger, drifts through a world both dazzling and faintly alien, her thoughts wandering far beyond the ballroom's glittering confines. Amid scenes of delicate beauty and subtle unrest, she encounters a small, poignant moment of humanity in a hospital ward, contrasting sharply with the polished frivolity of high society’s prolonged season.