Sacrifice

A young woman named Lilla Delliver inherits more than money after her parents die in a railway accident; the narrative follows her through upper-class salons and travel and examines the lingering effects of her mother's refined neuroticism on Lilla's sensibilities. Scenes of society ritual and occult performance, notably a clairvoyant reading that prophesies exotic encounters and multiple marriages, create tensions between fate and free will. The plot tracks Lilla's interior responses to rumor, expectation, and social pressure, contrasting outward glamour with psychological unrest and raising questions about obligation to family, desire, and destiny.