A ravishing romance about three wealthy New Yorker's caught in a tragic love triangle, the ironically-titled story chronicles the grandeur and hypocrisy of high society in the 1870's.

Newland Archer, an upstanding attorney who secretly longs for a more passionate life, is engaged to the lovely but ordinary socialite May Welland. Newland resigns himself to a life of quiet complacency, but when May's unconventional cousin returns to New York amid social and sexual scandal, Newland risks everything for a chance at true love.