The book reaches its dismal climax towards the end, as the main character, Lily, following a tragic decline into poverty, accidentally overdoses on a sleeping medicine. The very next morning, Selden, her true love, is on his way to tell her how he really feels, and arrives at the apartment to find his love dead.
“Selden was hardly conscious of what she said. He stood looking down on the sleeping face which seemed to be like a delicate impalpable mask over the living lineaments he had known. He felt that the real Lily was still there, close to him, yet invisible and inaccessible; and the tenuity of the barrier between them mocked him with a sense of helplessness. There had never been more than a little impalpable barrier between them – and yet he had suffered it to keep them apart! And now, though it seemed slighter and frailer than ever, it had suddenly hardened to adamant, and he might beat his life out against it in vain.”
