Kempton Greene

Grizel is the daughter of the Painted Lady, who believes that her lover will one day return. Grizel is ostracized by the other children of the town. Tommy and his sister come to the town. Tommy is friendly, but Elspeth keeps her distance. When the Painted Lady dies, Dr. Gemmell makes Grizel his housekeeper. Time passes and after the doctor dies, Grizel, who is now twenty-one years old, loves Tommy, who is an author in London. Tommy visits the town but cannot decide whether he loves Grizel. Grizel knows that Tommy does not love her, and after he returns to London her unhappiness leads to insanity. Tommy returns and marries Grizel, although he believes that she will hate him when she gets better. After two years under Tommy's care, she regains her sanity. After Tommy lets her know that he cared for her out of his love for her; not for pity, Grizel is happy.

Wharton creates a portrait of a stunning beauty who, though raised and educated to marry well both socially and economically, is reaching her 29th year, an age when her youthful blush is drawing to a close and her marital prospects are becoming ever more limited. The House of Mirth traces Lily's slow two-year social descent from privilege to a tragically lonely existence on the margins of society.

Joe Morgan, a previously respectable worker, becomes a town drunkard, losing his job and neglecting his family due to the influence of the local tavern, the "Sickle and Sheaf". Joe's daughter, Little Mary, frequently comes to the bar to beg her father to return home. During a confrontation in the bar, a thrown glass hits Little Mary, resulting in her death. Devastated by the death of his child, Joe vows revenge but reforms, ending his addiction and reuniting with his family.

Carma Carmichael, who lives with her uncle Quincy, is kidnapped by her renegade father Roger and taken to his ancestral Southern home. Uncle Quincy sends young Jack Carrington to investigate and goes into hiding, leading the Carmichaels to believe he is dead. Carma is at first suspicious of Jack's intentions but soon learns that the man who abducted her is actually an impostor who had murdered her father and now lives in the plantation with a group of thugs. Despite "Roger's" attempts to take Jack's life, the young man incites the thugs against him and they attack the house.

This Ogre was not he of the fairy tales, but a kindly wealthy man of forbidding face to whom those who did not know him gave the name. Tiring of loneliness he decided to marry, and wooed the Girl who lived at the foot of the hill. On account of his great wealth the Girl's parents encouraged his suit, but she shrank from him

Jeanne, an orphaned young heiress, is about to be married off to an elderly man by her scheming aunt, who stands to make money on the marriage, a fact of which Jeanne is unaware. Jeanne is also unaware that her aunt heads a ring that runs crooked card games, and one night Jeanne attends a fixed bridge game at which her aunt hopes to cheat a wealthy young man out of his money...

A woman writes about her sister's tragedy, vowing to help others in similar situations: Because Bettina longs to leave her country home, her loving mother sends her and her serious-minded elder sister to London, accepting their aunt's invitation to visit and allow Bettina to be introduced to society. The girls' dressmaker steals the aunt's photograph and sends it to a woman who, disguised as their aunt, leads the girls to a brothel. After the elder sister escapes, aided by her concerned male companion, she races in a cab to her aunt's home, but is frustrated in her attempt to rescue Bettina by her aunt's infirm state, the inefficiency of the police, and her own inability to remember the location of the house. She finds her cab driver, but he is drunk and soon dies in an accident. After falling ill, the sister, convinced by a dream that Bettina has died, resolves to devote her life to saving other women.