Las costumbres nacionales

The Spragg family, having made a fortune in a small Midwestern town, has spent two years in New York without managing to break into its intricate web of social hierarchies. They are "ordinary people" who "had not yet learned to be ashamed of it." Their daughter Undine, aided by her charm and extraordinary beauty, succeeds in carving out a place in high society and commanding admiration, though she soon realizes that men there view her as "mere flesh." In pursuit of respectability, she marries Ralph Marvell—a member of one of Old New York’s most distinguished clans—only to discover that a good name and wealth do not always go hand in hand. Unwilling to forgo either, she treats marriage as a career, much like business or land speculation for men. A dapper French count and a dynamic American speculator await her along the turbulent—and at times tragic—path of her ascent.