Denise Baudu arrives in Paris from the provinces with her young brothers and takes a job at The Ladies' Paradise, a vast and growing department store. Across the street, her uncle's small draper's shop struggles to survive against it. The store's owner, Octave Mouret, is a brilliant and driven showman of modern retail. Zola describes the displays, sales and crowds with great energy, and shows how the new commerce changed both cities and lives. It is one of his most lively novels, about ambition, desire and the cost of progress.