The Women

Within New York City's Park Avenue society matrons, the current gossip, fueled primarily by catty Sylvia Fowler and Edith Potter, is that Stephen Haines is cheating on his faithful, loving wife, Mary Haines, with a perfume-counter shopgirl. The gossip is indeed true; the shopgirl is young golddigger Crystal Allen. Mary is unaware of the situation until Sylvia gets busy spreading the gossip and making sure it gets back to Mary. As Mary's mother and friends give her advice on what to do, she meets Crystal herself, and as the gossip hits more public conduits, Mary must decide what to do, taking into account that she and Stephen have an adolescent daughter, also named Mary. Mary's perspective on her life changes after she meets a group of women in similar situations. That perspective includes how to deal with her so-called friends and how she really feels about being married to Stephen. But she finally makes her decision when she comes across what she believes to be the truth.