A young pianist falls in love with a rich banker's sixteen year old daughter after she requests to meet him in mildly mysterious circumstances. Her father will only let her marry someone with lots of money and, would you know it, hates music. The pianist decides to stop tickling the ivories and become a rich banker too. One of detective fiction master Anna Katharine Green's earlier novels, „The Sword of Damocles" combines a budding romance set against the backdrop of New York City's hustle and bustle with a beguiling mystery. Here, the author tells the story of early 1900's lovers facing many of the moral dilemmas from that era. Green's best-known creation, master detective Ebenezer Gryce, makes a cameo appearance on the scene.