Wharton's last novel, left unfinished at her death and later published, is set in the 1870s. A group of wealthy, newly rich young American women, shut out by the New York establishment, travel to England to find husbands among the aristocracy. The story follows their adventures in English country houses and the often surprising results of these transatlantic marriages. Lighter in tone than some of her work, it still examines class, money and the compromises of marriage. It reverses the usual view of old Europe and young America with wit and sympathy.