The novel is set in the 1890’s. Clytie Davenant is a headstrong young woman who escapes from the stultifying country life of her family to move to London and work as an artist. There she shares a studio off the King’s Road and enjoys the bohemian society and company of the people she meets. However, she plunges into an unwise marriage and the book (the author’s first) shows the constraints on women’s individuality at the time, and in particular the difficult position of married women in late Victorian society. - Summary by Simon Evers