
A sleek, other‑worldly estate serves as a gilded cage for three women and a reluctant observer, Roger Tennant. The house’s strange geometry—heptagonal core, contrasting wings of Southern classicism, solar‑machine modernity, and an ancient, multicolored spire—hints at a reality far beyond ordinary Earth. Beneath a sky that glows without sun or moon, the landscape itself is uncanny: a green, cellophane‑like lawn, trees of impossible bark, and a brook that flows over non‑mineral stones.
Tennant, dressed only in oddly unwrinkling tartan shorts, navigates the uneasy dynamics among the captives—Dana, haunted and defiant; Eudalia, a weary mother of twins; and Olga, the youngest, pregnant and silent. Their forced coexistence is laced with resentment, reluctant attraction, and the ever‑present question of who—or what—controls their fate. As they move deeper into the estate’s bizarre interior, the line between luxury and imprisonment blurs, setting the stage for a tense psychological contest that will test each character’s resolve.
Language
en
Duration
~40 minutes (38K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2016-01-27
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1910–1996
Known for lively science fiction and mystery stories, this mid-century writer also helped shape the pulp magazines where many classic SF readers first found the genre. His work blends big ideas with the brisk pace of popular fiction.
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