An autobiographical novel of Kurt Gray, a composer and pianist, from his lonely sexual awakening to a successful, partnered peace in adulthood. He grew up in Michigan with protective but misunderstanding parents, a long list of bullies, and few friends. The discovery of masturbation—and his minor sexual dalliances with other boys—fill Kurt with an extreme guilt only augmented by the Methodist church.

When he leaves for university, he lives with Chloe and Derry Grayling, becoming good friends with the first and the lover of the second. But to Kurt, Derry's love is inadequate and nonintellectual. After Kurt's post-grad move to New York, Derry finds a second lover in David Perrier: a clever, dandy-like man with a guarded insecurity. Kurt rebuffs the new man at first, then tumbles into a polygamous romance between the three of them.

Nevertheless, Chloe loves Kurt even after he confesses his homosexuality to her. She reports that while he is in Europe on a music scholarship, Derry and David have opened their relationship to a crowd of other men in Greenwich Village. Kurt maintains that sex ought to be an exclusively loving act, and, disillusioned in his love, finds comfort in a new friend, Tony McGuaran.

Although gay, Tony sleeps with men and women invariably for fun. He attempts to guide Kurt into a matching cynicism, proving his point with knowledge of David's secret history. The "guardian" that David once professed to is actually a sugar daddy and the host of lurid homosexual orgies. Nevertheless, upon returning to New York, Kurt falls once more in love with David, who confesses a regret for his past. Kurt goes on to secure a position as a music teacher in Connecticut, where he manages to console and mentor a gay teenager. David still lives in New York while writing a book about queer lives, and Derry gets arrested after a police officer entraps him into promising a sex liaison. With his job, Kurt has enough money to pay for the charges for Derry's innocence, then thinks to use his money to secure a home nearby the school to live with David in.

He returns to New York to tell David to come live with him, but finds that David had left that night to meet with his former sugar daddy. Betrayed, Kurt turns to Chloe for sex, and emerges from the disappointing experience with a deeper trust in David. At the novel's close, he reunites with David for their future life together.

Editions

• New York : Greenberg (1933) first edition.
• Universal Publishing and Distributing Corp. (1951) as Torment. 159pp.
• Alyson Publications (1987) with introduction by Hubert Kennedy. 284pp. 978-1555831165.
• Boston : Alyson Publications, Inc. (1990) with introduction by Hubert Kennedy and epilogue by Forman Brown. ISBN 1-55583-116-8.
• Alyson Books (1995) with author credited as Forman Brown. Includes epilogue and photographs of Brown. 222pp. 978-1555832841. Reissued in 2000 as 978-1555835736.
• Los Angeles Public Library (2020) with author credited as Forman Brown. Foreword by John F. Szabo. 283pp. ‎ 978-1734671315.

Also See:

• Clarke, Kim. "Blue Angel." University of Michigan Heritage Project.
• Beyelia, Nicholas. "The Lost Novel of Forman Brown." LAPL Blog, 25 June 2021.