Transgression 1931

Robert Maury, Paul Cavanagh is an English businessman tasked with a year in India to oversee financial matters, and he frets over his young wife, Elsie Maury, Kay Francis. His elder sister, Honora ‘Nora’ Maury, Nance O’Neil, suggests leaving Elsie at their country estate to keep an eye on her, but Elsie worries about the isolation and boredom that might come with it. Maury ultimately agrees to a solution: Elsie can move to Paris for the duration of his absence.

In Paris, Elsie falls under the guidance of Paula Vrain, Doris Lloyd, a sophisticated presence who teaches her how to navigate the decadent Parisian social scene. She quickly adapts, drawing attention from the men around her, notably Don Arturo de Borgus, Ricardo Cortez, a polished Spanish nobleman who showers her with interest. Elsie struggles to keep the relationship strictly platonic, and as Maury’s year apart nears its end, temptation tightens its grip. With Maury’s return looming, she accepts Paula’s invitation to one last party, unaware that Paula is acting on Arturo’s behalf. At the gathering, Arturo makes a bold, lingering move to seduce her, and the tension thickens as he invites Elsie to spend a weekend at his Spanish estate. Meanwhile, Maury arrives back in Europe, and his reaction to his wife’s changed demeanor is cool and sorrowful—he had left behind someone innocent, and he now confronts a more worldly, calculating woman.

That coolness becomes the wedge that shapes Elsie’s resolve. When Maury asks her to come home to England the next day, she stalls, choosing to bid farewell to her Parisian friends first rather than return immediately. After Maury departs for England, Elsie follows Arturo to his domain, where Arturo, with the help of his servant Serafin, John St. Polis, escalates his seduction. As the moment of weakness arrives, Elsie begins a conscience-driven confession to her husband and entrusts the letter to Serafin to post for her. Just then a peasant named Carlos accuses Arturo of seducing and impregnating his young daughter, who died during childbirth, and Carlos fatally shoots Arturo in a blaze of rage. Horrified by the brush with catastrophe, Elsie realizes she must intercept her confession before Maury reads it.

Back at the English estate, her plan shifts as Serafin claims to have already written the confession, prompting Elsie to return to England and confront the danger there. She waits, day after day, hoping to stop the postman, while Honora grows increasingly suspicious of her sister-in-law. When a news article reports Arturo’s death, those suspicions intensify, and Honora accuses Elsie of infidelity in front of Maury. This confrontation almost tears the couple apart, and Honora decides to leave the estate. It is only after Serafin arrives, threatening to reveal Elsie and Arturo’s liaison and to claim the confession letter, that Elsie realizes the depth of her love for Maury. Refusing to aid Serafin in harming him, she resists the urge to retreat from the truth. Serafin confronts Maury with the lurid details, but Maury refuses to be outraged, his faith in his wife remaining intact. In the end, Serafin departs chastened, and Maury welcomes Elsie back into his arms, reaffirming their bond and moving forward together.