Laura Thornby, independent, individual and slightly exotic, manages her life with exquisite control. Her affairs are brief but delightful, her career fulfilling. But when she meets struggling writer Claude Bannister, she is swept by an irresistible desire to interfere, manipulate and experiment with him — for his own good, of course. What she does not foresee, however, are the possibilities that he may one day write well, and that she might fall in love.