Miss Lucy Honeychurch is on a tour of Italy with her cousin and chaperone Miss Charlotte Bartlett when she encounters the young George Emerson, on a similar tour with his father. George finds himself drawn to the pretty, spirited Lucy, while Lucy is intrigued by George’s rejection of ‘proper’ behaviour. Despite her attraction to George, Lucy later becomes engaged to Cecil Vyse, a London ‘sophisticate’ whose upper class status makes him an excellent match; but when she discovers that George Emerson and his father have rented a villa close to her family home, Lucy must choose between convention and genuine emotion.
