In the short story The Face of Helen, Gillian West is titular “face of Helen”. Mr Satterthwaite first meets her at an opera and noted that she has a perfect "Greek head" as well as a beautiful face to match.
Unfortunately Gillian is in a love triangle with two men Charlie Burns and Philip Eastney vying for her and at one point the competition between them got violent.
Apparently Gillian's beauty had already left a fair amount of unpleasantness in her wake. According to Charlie Burns, there had been a young man who had shot himself. Then there was "the extra ordinary conduct" of a Bank Manager who was a married man. There was also "a violent stranger (who must have been balmy!), the wild behaviour of an elderly artist."
When Gillian decides to get engaged to Charlie Burns, she dreads having to tell Eastney about it and what he might do. She asks Satterthwaite for help. What happens next forms the main plot the story.