'The Way of a Man with a Maid' is a foray into pleasure, pain, lesbianism and etiquette – told from the viewpoint of a quintessential Edwardian gent. Having first appeared in Parisian journals around the turn of the century, it is widely acknowledged to be a defining example of the erotic genre, and reveals the dark underbelly of human sexuality. Do the best things come to the woman who waits? Jack has built a special place in a padded room of an old lunatic asylum named 'The Snuggery'. Filled with ropes, cushions, straps and feathers, he chooses Alice to complete the decoration. Imprisoned against her will, she is teased into submission. And in moments of passion, when Jack names her his 'wife', Alice finally surrenders her maidenhead, submitting to the power of his unbridled lust.