THE DAY OF THE PEACOCK

A conveniently planned, deliberately detailed chronicle of South Carolina's cotton and tobacco empires, of the aftermath of wealth and power as it touched- and tarred- the next generation. For Jay Bruton, second and favored son of proud, driving Royal Bruton, defies his father to buy the old Peacock place where he plans a mill of his own, marries coarse, insolent Annie Shamrock for the tobacco money she has inherited, and shows his father that rayon is the fabric of the modern world. His unhappiness with Annie is offset by the meeting with Katherine, the daughter of a dedicated labor organizer; but the infiltration of Communism brings violence to them all when Royal Bruton has a stroke during the riot at the plant, Katherine's father is killed by the Party, and Annie-trying desperately to hold her husband- dies in an accident along with an agitator... A rather synthetic alignment of familiar faces, pertinent pressures and predictable situations.