A chance acquaintance brings together the prosperous bourgeois Wilcox family and the clever
cultured and idealistic Schlegel sisters. As clear-eyed Margaret develops a friendship with
Mrs. Wilcox the impetuous Helen brings into their midst a young bank clerk named Leonard Bast
who lives at the edge of poverty and ruin. When Mrs. Wilcox dies her family discovers that she
wants to leave her country home Howards End to Margaret. Thus Forster sets in motion a chain
of events that will entangle three different families and brilliantly portrays their
aspirations for personal and social harmony.
