James's masterly novel set in nineteenth-century New York society is a devastating study of innocence destroyed. When plain Catherine Sloper acquires a dashing, determined suitor, her father, convinced that the young man is a fortune-hunter, decides to end their romance. Torn between her desire to win her father's approval and her passion for the first man to notice her, Catherine faces an agonising dilemma, and becomes all too aware of the limits on her freedom.