Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, has come to Europe in order to realize her full potential. Refusing to believe that marriage alone is to be her destiny, she turns down proposals from two eligible suitors: Lord Warburton and Caspar Goodwood. Following the death of her uncle, Isabel inherits great wealth and she travels to Florence where she falls under the spell of Gilbert Osmond, a charming but coldly selfish widower. To Gilbert, Isabel represents a handsome prize worth some seventy thousand pounds; through him she faces a tragic choice.

Love, intrigue and betrayal combine in this powerful, many-layered novel, widely considered to be Henry James’s masterpiece.