The Grandet family is violently out of the ordinary, since the sudden arrival of his late Cousin Charles Eugenie, recently orphaned and without money. Eugenie's emotional awakening, stimulated by her love for her cousin, leads to a direct conflict with her father, whose smart and financial success matched her determination to rebel. The moving story of Eugenie is placed in the background of provincial oppression and the functioning of the financial system following the French Revolution. It is both a fascinating portrait of private life and a vigorous fictional document of his age.