Jean Gaussin is a young man from a wealthy family in southern France and works for the government in Paris.
He begins a relationship with Fanny Legrand, initially unaware of her career as a scandalous model under the name Sappho.
Jean begins an affair with another woman, Irène, favoured by his parents to become his wife, only to return to Fanny with renewed affection.
[1] The book inspired a wave of novels with lesbian themes, including Sapphô (1884) by Jean Richepin, Un crime d'amour [fr] (1886) by Paul Bourget, Paris impur (1889) by Charles Vimaire, Gomorrhe (1889) by Henri d'Argis [fr], La Dernière journée de Sapphó (1901) by Gabriel Faure and Sapho de Lesbos (1902) by Maurice Morel.
[2] The 1943 Carlos Hugo Christensen Argentine film, Safo, historia de una pasión, is based on the novel.