In the exclusive world of upper-class New York, in which attendance at balls and dinner passes for occupation, Newland Archer anticipates his marriage to May Welland, a beautiful young girl from a suitable family 'who knows nothing and expects everything'. Into this well-ordered community May's cousin, the captivating and exotic Countess Olenska, arrives.
She has returned from Europe after the collapse of her marriage and alternately enchants and outrages New York society with her cosmopolitan lifestyle. Newland is sympathetic to her escape from a loveless marriage, and as his sympathy deepens into love he not only gains insight into the brutality of society's treatment of women, but also discovers the real anguish of loving outside its rules.
