The dilettantes who frequent Lady Tantamount's society parties are determined to push forward the moral frontiers of the age. Marjorie has left her family to live with Walter; Walter is in love with the luscious but cold-hearted Lucy; Maurice deflowers young girls for the sake of entertainment, while the withdrawn writer, Philip, finds himself drawn to the dangerous political charm of Everard. As they all engage in dazzling and witty conversation, the din of the age - its ideas and idiocies - grows deafening.
