Plot

Allen Quinton writes a fellow soldier's love letters; tragedy results. Later, Allen meets a beautiful amnesiac who fears postmen...

After a man asks another man more facile with words to do his wooing for him, there are always complications. The man with no talent for writing marries the girl, confesses one night he didn't write the letters and ends up with a knife in his back. The writer of the letters falls in love with the woman he wrote to and wants to become her second husband even if she did murder husband number one. Singleton doesn't remember the murder or anything about the first 22 years of her life as Victoria Remington. Then at her second wedding she wonders why she said "I take you, Roger," instead of "I take you, Alan."—Dale O'Connor <daleoc@interaccess.com>

Stationed in Italy during WWII, British officer Roger Morland gets his fellow officer, Alan Quinton, to write love letters to his casual girlfriend, Victoria Remington back home, as Roger doesn't have the wherewithal to do so himself. Based on Victoria's responses, Alan can tell that Victoria has fallen in love with Roger because of those letters, and in turn Alan, without admitting it to himself, has fallen in love with Victoria without even knowing what she looks like. On one of Roger's training missions back in England, Roger and Victoria get married which irks Alan because he knows she is not marrying who she thinks he is - he truly being beneath her in spirit - that person with who she has fallen in love being non-existent as an amalgam of Roger's physical being and Alan's emotional being. Alan's feelings are despite him being engaged himself, to Helen Wentworth, about who he does not feel the same in that he could never have written those love letters to her. Back in England himself on a medical discharge, Alan learns that Roger has died tragically, not in combat, but while he was at home. As such, Alan, with only Victoria's previous address in Longreach, Essex County in hand, subconsciously takes steps to locate her by living in an isolated house he inherited in Beltmarsh, also in Essex. What Alan discovers second-hand is that Victoria murdered Roger, although Alan believes he truly is the murderer, the weapon being those love letters. What he also later learns is that he had previously met Victoria at a party in London, she a young woman going by the name Singleton, who knows nothing of her Victoria past as she is suffering from amnesia, including remembering nothing about the trial when she was convicted or her one year incarceration. With all this knowledge, Alan truly falls in love with all that is Victoria/Singleton, and Singleton with him, the two who want to spend their lives together. Alan does however realize that if Singleton were ever to regain her memory of being Victoria, it would not only destroy their life together, but her entire being, especially in knowing his role in what happened in her previous life.—Huggo

During WWII, a British soldier has been writing love letters for a friend, but finds himself falling in love with the woman from afar. After his friend is killed, the letter writer tries to find out more about the woman, but finds his way obscured by a scandal no one will talk about. As he investigates, he discovers that the disappearance of the woman is related to the mysterious circumstances of his friend's death.—Ed Sutton <esutton@mindspring.com>

In wartime Italy, thoughtful soldier Alan Quinton writes love letters for comrade Roger to Victoria, whom he's never met. He later hears that she and Roger are married, then that Roger is dead. Wounded, Alan retires to his late aunt's Essex farmhouse, which oddly enough is near Victoria's old home where he's told she, too, is dead. Back in London, Alan meets Singleton, a beautiful amnesiac. Despite mutual attraction, their relationship seems doomed from the start.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

During World War II, while on the Allied front in Italy, Alan Quinton writes love letters to Victoria Remington for fellow British officer Roger Morland, who met her briefly at a ball. Victoria falls in love with the poetic spirit behind the letters, and although Alan is engaged to Helen Wentworth, he too falls in love with Victoria through her letters. Roger and Victoria marry, and when Alan is wounded, Roger visits his parents in England while on his honeymoon. Alan finally returns home and stays in a sanatorium while he recuperates, and soon learns that Roger has died in an accident. At the end of the war, Alan has difficulty returning to civilian life, and is eager to move to Beltmarsh to a country house he has inherited from an aunt. Before leaving London, Alan's brother takes him to a party where he meets Dilly Carson and a woman named Singleton. While drunk, Alan tells the story of how he lost his heart to a woman he never met, but to whom he wrote for another man. Dilly realizes that Alan is speaking of Victoria and Roger, and tells him that an "old murder" was committed at Beltmarsh, and that he should think about the letters while he is there. Shortly after moving to Beltmarsh, which is still looked after by his aunt's caretaker, Mack, Alan breaks his engagement to Helen. One day, Alan goes to Meadow Farm, Victoria's former home, but is told that Victoria died over a year earlier. Recalling Dilly's words, he researches newspaper articles at the library and learns that Roger was murdered by his wife. Alan feels somehow responsible for Roger's death, and goes to see Dilly in London. There he encounters the amnesiac Victoria, who now goes by the name of Singleton, the name given to her as a child at an orphanage. Dilly warns Alan not to tell Victoria the truth of who he is, and explains that she was a Canadian orphan adopted by Beatrice Remington. Although she only met Roger briefly, Victoria fell in love with him through the letters, and married him, despite Beatrice's protests, only three days after he returned from the front. Dilly then recalls the past: Victoria grows sullen after marrying, and one day, Dilly is called to Meadow Farm, where she finds Roger stabbed to death, Victoria completely dazed, and Beatrice suffering from a paralytic stroke. Because Beatrice cannot testify at the murder trial, Victoria confesses her guilt, but admits she cannot remember anything about her past. After spending one year in a prison psychiatric ward, Victoria is released into the care of her old friend Dilly. Dilly now tells Alan that Beatrice has recovered and is living in a nursing home, but that Victoria has never recovered her memory, and does not even know her real name, believing that she is "Singleton." One day, Victoria unexpectedly appears at Beltmarsh, and she and Alan fall in love. Because Victoria is unaware of her own identity, she still believes that he is in love with another woman named Victoria Morland. Alan and Victoria marry, but she is plagued by her own erratic recollections and Alan's love of the "other woman." One day, while Alan is away, Victoria intercepts a letter from Beatrice telling Alan that she has moved back to Meadow Farm. Victoria goes back to her old house, where the murder took place, and Beatrice recounts the story of Victoria's marriage: Victoria becomes depressed because Roger does not share her sentimental nature. Realizing Victoria is in love with the writer of the letters rather than him, the callous Roger soon becomes abusive. One day, while drunk, he tells Victoria that he did not write the letters and burns them, then beats Victoria as she tries to pull them from the fire. Beatrice, who has an obsessive need to protect Victoria, stabs Roger to death, then has a paralytic stroke. When Victoria, who crouches by the fireplace grieving over the loss of her letters, suddenly realizes that Roger is dead, she picks up the knife, incriminating herself, then lapses into amnesia. When Alan arrives at the house, Victoria recalls her true identity. Although Beatrice tries to persuade Victoria that they should hate the man who wrote the letters, Victoria runs to Alan, who confesses that it was he. Finally, they embrace.