HOTEL TALLYRAND

The characters around whom Mr. Bonner spins his sophisticated story are worldly and intelligent people of the diplomatic set-- American and French. Some of them are charming, but S. Livingston Locke, a coldly-ambitious diplomat, scarcely belongs in this category. Locke proves he is willing to sacrifice his best friends to get the ambassadorship he is seeking when his young assistant, Walter Haines, . becomes entangled -with a lovely Communist agent. Haines meets the girl in a plush Paris "house," and from this highly unconventional encounter stems a passionate love affair. For the girl, there is terrible choice -- renunciation of her Communist, role, which can end only in retribution, or the sacrifice of her love. That the choice is not finally hers marks the high point of suspense and drama in the unexpected climax.