Pierce's wife has died three months earlier, and he is still grieving deeply. The irrepressible Brianne strikes up a conversation with him. On her nineteenth birthday, Brianne goes to a Parisian bistro where she again encounters Pierce and takes him back to his hotel when he's too drunk to manage himself. As she leaves, she tells him she's waiting for him to recover from his grief. Brianne spends the summer in Nassau where her mother and stepfather live.
Pierce lives nearby.
They spend time as friends becoming better acquainted. When her stepfather makes it clear that he is going to force Brianne into marriage with Philippe in order to solidify his economic position, Brianne asks Pierce to take her virginity so that Philippe will no longer be interested in her. In spite of his reservations about her youth, Pierce complies but also insists they marry so that she will be completely unavailable. Pierce still feels married to his late wife, but he is irresistibly attracted to Brianne, to her beauty and her vivacity. Whenever he makes love with Brianne, he feels as though he is being unfaithful to his first wife.