A naive girl from a humble background meets an ambitious city boy, and a torrid romance ensues. Can their passion overcome the effects of heredity and environment? Edith Wharton, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ethan Frome, created a sensation with this 1917 work, which shattered the standards of conventional love stories by presenting a frank treatment of a woman's sexual awakening. A "superb short novel." - The New York Review of Books.