Society scion Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis) is engaged to May Welland (Winona Ryder), but his well-ordered life is upset when he meets May's unconventional cousin, the Countess Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer). At first, Newland becomes a defender of the Countess, whose separation from her abusive husband makes her a social outcast in the restrictive high society of late-19th Century New York, but he finds in her a companion spirit and they fall in love.