THE BALL

Emma Starr Fleury, 60, has only six months to live (leukemia). Alone with her thoughts, and they incline toward regret and resignation rather than fear or protest, she looks back on the lacunae in her life: the arranged marriage, at the expense of the man she loved- Adam, to a Count who provided every amenity but no real feeling; her childlessness; and her retreat from any more passionate involvement. Now, in the face of death, she becomes less passive and encourages- in others- the attachments she has shirked: the romance of her niece; an extramarital experience for her secretary; and finally, importing from America Adam's daughter- he is dead- she tries to secure for her all she has missed in life.... A susceptible situation is handled without subtlety, but with expansive- not effusive-sentiment and sympathy, and the Riviera background lends a tone of ease and elegance. The available audience will be women.