"Where Angels Fear to Tread" is a scathing critique of British society at the end of XIX and beginning of XX century. Lilia, a well-off widow travels to Italy and falls in love with a handsome, although poor Italian youth.
Her in -laws in England become alarmed at the misalliance. Alas, they are too late to prevent it. After a short and unhappy marriage Lilia dies in childbirth.
Lilia's in-laws as well as her old friend and companion Carolyn Abbott try to obtain custody of the baby. The rescue effort ends tragically- baby gets killed in an accident.
Coming from two worlds that have very little in common, the protagonists clash repeatedly, each side trying to assert supremacy and conquer the other.
The Italians are presented as charming and irresistible, while the British appear rigid and heartless. In the end Phillip - Lilia's brother in-law - realizes that he is in love with Carolyn, while Carolyn confesses that she is desperately in love with Gino.
At the end the reader is left with an unsettling feeling of futility...
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