Isabel Archer, from New York, is invited by her rich family to visit their estate, near London. There she meets A Robust Man, Lord Warburton, who proposes. She Declines his proposal, as well as Caspar Goodwood's. She feels that a marriage like either of these would infringe upon her freedom. She finally decides to marry an American expatriate Gilbert Osmond. This is when life gets especially complicated for Isabel.