The Years traces the history of the genteel Pargiter family from the 1880s to the "present day" of the mid-1930s. Spanning through fifty years, the novel focuses on the small private details of the characters' lives. Sections take place on a single day of its titular year, and each year is defined by a particular moment in the cycle of seasons.

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was an English writer and one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century. During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and Orlando.