 Sophie, who takes after her father, is very carefully kept far from her mother's sight by the household staff, who otherwise disregard Agnes' desires and ignore her.Outside of the house, few know of Agnes' madness (though knowledge of it spreads during the length of the story), who presents herself as an inveterate hostess and socialite to the world during each season.William soon becomes obsessed with a worldly young prostitute named Sugar, an unconventionally intelligent and strong-willed young woman who uses the affair with William to climb to a higher perch in the rigidly stratified class system of the time.