Editing Leave Her to Heaven (section)

==Plot==
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While traveling by train in [[New Mexico]], novelist Richard Harland meets Ellen Berent, a beautiful [[socialite]] from [[Boston]]. She is particularly drawn to him, as he reminds her of her deceased father, to whom she had an obsessive attachment. Ellen is visiting New Mexico to spread her father's [[cremation|ashes]], accompanied by her aloof mother and her cousin Ruth, who was adopted by Mrs. Berent (Richard is surprised when Ruth tells him this, and wonders why she did not say "Mr. and Mrs. Berent" adopted her).

Richard and Ellen discover they are staying with the same friends, and begin a whirlwind romance. He is fascinated by Ellen's exotic beauty and intense personality. The couple's affair is interrupted when Ellen's estranged fiancé, attorney Russell Quinton, arrives unexpectedly. Ellen then announces that she intends to marry Richard immediately, to Richard's surprise.

Ellen and Richard marry in [[Warm Springs, Georgia]] before staying at his lodge on a lake in northern [[Maine]]. Their domestic life is copacetic at first, but it becomes gradually apparent that she is pathologically jealous of anyone and anything he cares about, including his family and career.

During an unexpected visit from Ellen's family, her mother attempts to warn Richard that Ellen is prone to obsessiveness and a compulsion to "love too much". Ellen's resentment only grows when Richard's beloved teenage brother, Danny, [[cripple]]d by  [[polio]], comes to live with them. One afternoon, Ellen follows him on the lake in a rowboat as he attempts to swim from one side to the other. She knowingly encourages him to press on, even as Danny begins to struggle to stay afloat. Ellen watches from the boat as he sinks below the surface and drowns.

[[File:Gene Tierney and Jeanne Crain in Leave Her to Heaven.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1|Gene Tierney and Jeanne Crain in ''Leave Her to Heaven'']]
Danny's death is presumed an accident, and Ellen feigns sympathy. After settling at their home in [[Bar Harbor, Maine|Bar Harbor]], Richard is despondent. At Ruth's suggestion, Ellen becomes pregnant in an attempt to please Richard, but later confesses to Ruth that she does not want the child, likening it to a "little beast".

One afternoon, Ellen throws herself down a staircase to induce a [[miscarriage]]. She succeeds, and after recovering in the hospital, accuses Ruth of being in love with Richard, citing a dedication in his new novel that alludes to her. Ruth rebukes Ellen by accusing her of causing the misery that has befallen the family. Richard overhears the argument, and confronts Ellen for the deaths of Danny and of their unborn child. Ellen admits without remorse to having let Danny drown, and cruelly tells Richard she would do it again if given the chance. Angered, Richard leaves Ellen, but does not pursue criminal action as he does not believe there is sufficient evidence.

An enraged Ellen sends a letter to Russell, who is now the county [[district attorney]], in which she accuses Ruth of plotting to murder her. While on a picnic with Ruth and her mother several days later, Ellen secretly poisons herself with sugar laced with [[arsenic]], which sends her into [[Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome|multiple organ failure]] over several days. When Richard visits Ellen on her deathbed, she requests in his confidence that she be cremated, and that he scatter her ashes where she spread her father's in New Mexico, which he agrees to do.

After Ellen dies, Ruth has her remains cremated at Richard's instruction. She is subsequently charged with Ellen's murder, the case prosecuted by Russell. During the trial, Russell proposes that Ruth plotted to kill Ellen so she and Richard could be together, and frames Ruth's cremation of Ellen as a calculated decision to prevent an [[autopsy]].

A recalcitrant Richard testifies regarding Ellen's psychopathic jealousy, insisting that she made her own [[suicide]] appear as a murder to punish him and Ruth. Ruth is ultimately acquitted, but he is sentenced to two years imprisonment as an [[Accessory (legal term)|accessory]] in Danny's death, as he withheld his knowledge of Ellen's actions. After completing his sentence, Richard returns to his lodge, where he is welcomed lovingly by Ruth.