Kate Croy and Merton Densher are two betrothed Londoners who desperately want to marry but have very little money. Into their world comes Milly Theale, an enormously rich young American woman who had previously met and fallen in love with Densher, although she has never revealed her feelings. Kate welcomes Milly to London, and the American heiress enjoys great social success. However, after a visit to an eminent doctor, Milly discovers that she suffers from an incurable disiese.

Henry James (1843-1916) was an American-British writer who spent most of his writing career in Britain. James is regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He is best known for a number of novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between émigré Americans, English people, and continental Europeans – examples of such novels include The Portrait of a Lady, The Ambassadors, and The Wings of the Dove.