While being treated for asthma at a country spa, an American diplomat`s lonely 12-year-old son is befriended and infatuated by a suave, mysterious baron. But soon his adored friend heartlessly brushes him aside and turns his seductive attentions to his mother. The boy`s jealousy and feelings of betrayal become uncontrollable. The story is set in Austria in the 1920s.

The book was adapted for a movie in 1988, starring Faye dunaway, Klaus Maria Brandauer and lan Richardson.