In the provincial town of Saumur, the wealthy and miserly cooper Monsieur Grandet rules his household with strict thrift. His quiet daughter Eugénie leads a sheltered life until the arrival of her cousin Charles, a fashionable young Parisian whose family is in trouble. Her feelings for him test her obedience and generosity. The novel is a compact, finely observed study of greed, family control and the limits of a woman's freedom in a small-town world, and it is one of Balzac's most admired shorter works.