In the rigid high society of 1870s New York, young lawyer Newland Archer appears destined for a conventional and respectable life with his fiancée, May Welland. His certainty begins to unravel when he meets May's unconventional cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, who has returned to America after leaving an unhappy marriage. As Newland becomes increasingly drawn to Ellen, he finds himself caught between personal desire and the expectations of the society to which he belongs. Edith Wharton's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel examines love, duty, conformity, sacrifice, and the hidden constraints of privilege.