Nana is the daughter of the laundress Gervaise, and she rises from the Paris streets to become a celebrated actress and courtesan in the last years of the Second Empire. Though she has little talent for the stage, her beauty and boldness draw wealthy and aristocratic men into her circle. The novel follows the extravagant world around her, its theatres, salons and racecourses. Zola uses her story to examine desire, vanity and the moral weakness of a glittering society. It is one of the most notorious and widely read books of the Rougon-Macquart cycle.