Kate Croy is a beautiful but impoverished young woman forced to live with her successful but astringent Aunt, Maude Lower. Lower intends Kate to marry the aristocratic Lord Mark, but she is already in love with a journalist, Merton Densher. Though their lack of money prevents the two from marrying, the destitute couple soon become friends with Milly Theale, an American heiress with an ambiguous ailment and an obvious affection for Densher. As Theale's health grows worse, Kate weaves a web of int ...