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Ezra Mannon returns from the Civil War. His wife Christine has been having an affair with Adam Bryant. Lavinia, Ezra's daughter, hates her mother and knows about the affair. Later, Christine tells Brant that she means to kill Ezra. When Ezra and Christine are alone that night, she exposes her affair, hoping Ezra will have a heart attack. He asks for his medicine, but she gives him poison instead. As he dies, Lavinia hears him accuse Christine of poisoning him. Orin, Lavinia's brother, returns home from war, and Lavinia draws Orin aside and tells him about the poison. Orin vows to avenge his father's death. They secretly follow Christine to a rendezvous with Brant aboard his ship and hear her describe Ezra's murder to him. Once Christine is ashore, Orin stabs Brant to death. The next morning, Orin tells his mother of Brant's death and she shoots herself. Lavinia offers herself to her brother. After a year, Orin and Lavinia return from a long holiday in the tropics. Lavinia comes back rested, but Orin is consumed by guilt. Lavinia drives Orin mad, and he shoots himself with the gun she hands him. Lavinia also goes mad, and she retreats into her house, alone.
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