Clare Corven returns to England from Ceylon after leaving her husband, Sir Gerald Corven, whose sustained cruelty—culminating in an episode with a riding‑whip—has made marital life intolerable. On the homeward voyage she forms a close, non‑conjugal intimacy with James “Tony” Croom, a young ex‑planter recently made redundant; enforced shipboard leisure deepens their companionship, leaving both attached though Clare insists she is not in love. At Condaford Grange she is received by her family: elder sister Dinny Charwell, their parents, and a small local circle including Sir Lawrence Mont and Aunt Em. Political and economic anxieties—postwar decline, currency troubles, local schemes and the National Government election—form the social background.

To be independent Clare becomes secretary to Eustace Dornford, the newly elected MP, while Tony, nearly penniless but devoted to horses, finds a tentative prospect with breeder Jack Muskham. Sir Gerald, back in England, institutes divorce proceedings naming Tony as co‑respondent and claiming damages. The petition relies on circumstantial evidence collected by enquiry agents and a detective, Chayne: shipboard intimacy, a stewardess’s testimony, observers noting Clare and Tony entering her lodgings, and a notorious night on February 3rd when their car lost its lights in a wood and the two spent the dark hours there. Clare and Tony deny sexual intercourse; Clare refuses to make public the humiliating private reasons she left her husband.

The trial becomes the central drama. Cross‑examination—led by Mr. Brough alongside counsel retained by Clare (Kingson, Cuthcott & Forsyte; Roger Forsyte figures)—probes shipboard behaviour, the sequence of meetings, and the critical night in the wood. Clare admits friendliness: kisses on cheek, hand‑holding, sleeping with her head on Croom’s shoulder, occasional meetings; she denies intercourse and resists detailing intimate marital wrongs. The Judge focuses on credibility, pressing why they remained in the car rather than seek help and confronting Sir Gerald’s testimony that marital relations had been re‑established on November 1st—an allegation Clare denies under strain. Croom testifies candidly, professing deep love yet denying any physical consummation beyond innocent kisses and handholding; he insists he never took advantage and would have told Sir Gerald had passion been mutual.

The jury, after the Judge’s balanced summing‑up that credibility will decide the circumstantial case and shape damages, finds both Clare and Tony guilty of adultery and recommends the co‑respondent pay the costs. The verdict stings reputations and finances. In the aftermath Dinny suffers nervous collapse but recovers; family solicitors arrange that costs will be met without calling on Clare or Croom—Dinny suspects Dornford, but is privately told by Fleur that she paid. Clare and Tony reconcile privately—Clare invites him to her mews and accepts an informal relationship; Tony, wounded, returns to country life and his mares. Dinny slowly builds a new intimacy with Dornford leading to a modest wedding. The episode underscores themes of private truth versus public judgement, the difficulty of proving intimate wrongs in court, the asymmetry of feeling, and private generosity resolving public scandal.