Examines the influence of Edith Wharton's love affair with Morton Fullerton on her books 'Ethan Frome' and 'The Reef,' specifically the author's toughminded idealism and frustrations of inhibited love portrayed in 'The Reef.' Significance of Wharton's love letters that were discovered in 1980; Background on Wharton's married life; Semblance between the novelist and Anna Leath of 'The Reef.'