Isabel Archer, a vivacious New World ingénue who leaves America for Old World Europe, is keen to experience all that life has to offer.

A young woman with charm and an innate intellectual curiosity, Isabel rejects a series of marriage proposals, but when she inherits an unexpected fortune that promises to grant her freedom, she falls prey to two American ex-pat schemers: the elegant Madame Merle and the charming but calculating Gilbert Osmond.