As Katherine Hilbery is helping her mother write the biography of her grandfather, a famous man of letters buried in Poets Corner, she becomes engaged to William Rodney, a budding writer with an exaggerated opinion of his own poetical talent. Meanwhile, the suffragette Mary Datchet is in love with Ralph Denham, a lawyer and journalist from a lowly background, who in turn feels more attracted to Katherine. As the stories and the romantic interests of these four young people evolve and intertwine, a picture emerges of a society still obsessed with class and hung up on the social mores of the Victorian era.

By far the most accessible and traditional of all Virginia Woolf s novels, Night and Day, is a powerful evocation of a fast-changing world and, though conventional in style, addresses many of the author s recurring preoccupations, such as the role of women in society and the difficulties in reconciling love and marriage.