Marcy and John have been friends from their earliest childhood years. When they are in second grade, Kit Redmond moves into their neighborhood. Although she is two years younger, she starts hanging around with Marcy and John, and continues to do so for many years as she is in love with John, a love that is not returned. When they are 21, Marcy goes to Europe with a friend for 2 months and while she is gone, John starts hanging out with Kit, at her insistence. One night, while he and Kit are with another couple, they go to New York and get very drunk. In this state, John marries Kit in a short ceremony presided over by a justice of the peace. John desperately wants to get out of the marriage, but when Marcy returns from Europe and finds out what he has done, she refuses to forgive him and eventually marries another man. Several years later, a widowed Marcy unintentionally at first, falls into an affair with John. The book continues to an inevitable, sad ending for everyone.
