All of the other players in this story are overshadowed by the woman who dies when the story is barely underway, Desiree, nee Daisy Rayton. Her daughter says of her, "She had lived her life free of conventions and she had given so much to others. She had chosen to live as she pleased, and I had heard her say that if you don't hurt anyone, what harm can you do?" It is the kindness that she shows to Lisa Fennell, though, that results in her death, and her decision to deceive Charlie Claverham has far-ranging, hurtful effects that she did not foresee.

Her decisions affect every life in the novel and memories of her are constantly invoked. She is presented as an admirable person, beautiful, vivacious and professionally successful, yet many events in the book prove that the desire to do no harm is a false hope...