When timid & plain Catherine Sloper acquires a dashing & determined suitor, her father, convinced that the young man is nothing more than a fortune-hunter, decides to put a stop to their romance. Torn between her desire to win her father`s love & approval & her passion for the first man who has ever declared his love for her, Catherine faces an agonising dilemma, & becomes all too aware of the restrictions that others seek to place on her freedom. James` masterly novel deftly interweaves the public & private faces of nineteenth-century New York society; it is also a deeply moving study of innocence destroyed.