Lily Bart is beautiful and charming, living among the wealthy families of New York City, but reluctant to finally commit herself to one. In an endless search for freedom and the happiness she feels she deserves, she becomes embroiled in a scandal, and is ultimately ruined.

A searing study of woman as a passive creature, existing only as a consumer item in a man's world, The House of Mirth created controversy on its publication in 1905 with its scathing portrayal of the wealthy and the lack of freedom that marriage and society offered women.