Maggie Verver, the daughter of a wealthy American collector, marries Prince Amerigo, an impoverished Italian nobleman. Her widowed father later marries Charlotte Stant, Maggie's old friend. The two couples seem happy and close, but gradually Maggie senses that something in the arrangement is wrong. A chance discovery, linked to a flawed antique bowl, leads her to look harder at the people she loves. The novel, set largely in England, is a late and demanding work about marriage, loyalty, money and the quiet use of power.
Quotes
Everything's terrible, cara—in the heart of man.