The narrative chronicles the intimate life of a Paris household centered on an old-fashioned commercial family and their shop, focusing on a daughter's passionate attachment to an artist, the family's insistence on conservative values, and the ensuing failed marriage and abandonment. Through rich, detailed descriptions of interiors, street life, and social manners, the tale examines tensions between bourgeois respectability and artistic freedom, the influence of parental authority and social ambition on private happiness, and the consequences of mismatched desires. The structure combines close psychological observation with lengthy scene-setting and social portraiture.