Sentimental Education is based on Gustave Flaubert’s own youthful passion for an older woman and is described by the author as "the moral history of the men of my generation." It follows the amorous adventures of Frederic Moreau, a law student who, upon returning home to Normandy from Paris, notices Mme Arnoux, a slender, dark woman several years older than himself. This marks the beginning of an infatuation that will last a lifetime.

Frederic befriends her husband, an influential businessman, and as their paths cross and re-cross over the years, Mme Arnoux remains the constant, unattainable love of Moreau’s life. Blending love story, historical authenticity, and satire, Sentimental Education is one of the great French novels of the nineteenth century.