The du Guénics are one of the oldest families in Brittany, and Calyste is the twenty-one year old only son of the patriarch. A long-time family friend is determined to marry off one of her nieces to Calyste, but he’s in love with a woman of forty. Although Camille is flattered by the attentions of a man half her age, she recognizes the futility of his feelings. She decides that she’ll introduce him to her friend Béatrix, a twenty-eight year old woman of the world, with far-reaching implications for everyone involved.

Balzac’s vivid characterizations provide the compelling backdrop to the story of Calyste’s introduction to love. Béatrix , as originally written and published, contained only the first two parts of the present novel; Balzac didn’t add the third until several years later.