The story begins in Saratoga Springs, in 1956. Rita's mother is the maid in the household of the magician Edmund and his grandmother. Rita is a young girl, and has a fantasy life complicated by Edmund's illusions and claims that he will marry her one day. Meanwhile he's having an affair with Rita's mother. Within a few years we see the three of them doing magic shows on stage in Moscow, and Paris. Rita's mother ages and is phased out of the show, while Rita grows up, becomes more attractive and begins to bear the brunt of Edmund's exploitative on-stage hypnotic acts.
The Magician's Wife