Crimson Petal and the White

Failing as a writer, deeply in debt, loathed to join his father’s soap business, and plagued by his unstable wife, William finds solace when he seeks out the renowned prostitute Sugar, and is deeply impressed by her literary and sexual prowess.

Curious to develop her hold over William, Sugar finds out his address and spies on his house. Glimpsing her through the window, Agnes is convinced that the mysterious figure is an angel sent to watch over her.

Mrs Fox recovers miraculously, but is inconsolable over Henry’s death. William decides that he is now too busy to keep going back and forth to Sugar’s house in Marylebone and so invites her to become governess to his neglected daughter Sophie.

Sugar continues to become the maternal figure that Sophie has never known. William is called to identify a body found in the Thames - the face is badly disfigured but he is convinced it is his missing wife.