A young couple's love is threatened by the destructive power of money by one of the greatest
authors of her age In this beautiful novel Edith Wharton perceptively describes the seductions
and temptations of high society with all her trademark wit and irony. Nick Lansing and Susy
Branch are young attractive but impoverished New Yorkers. They are in love and decide to
marry but they realise their chances of happiness are slim without the wealth and status that
their more privileged friends take for granted. Nick and Susy agree to separate whenever either
encounters a more eligible proposition. However as they honeymoon in friends' lavish houses
from a villa on Lake Como to a Venetian palace jealous passions and troubled consciences cause
the idyll to crumble.
