Virginia Woolf's Orlando playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf's close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Spanning three centuries, the novel opens as Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabeth's England, awaits a visit from the Queen and traces his experience with first love as England under James I lies locked in the embrace of the Great Frost. At the midpoint of the novel, Orlando, now an ambassador in Constantinople, awakes to find that he is now a woman, and the novel indulges in farce and irony to consider the roles of women in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the novel ends in 1928, a year consonant with full suffrage for women. Orlando, now a wife and mother, stands poised at the brink of a future that holds new hope and promise for women.

To Arabella Tallant, the eldest daughter of a penniless country clergyman, the invitation to stay with her London godmother was like the key to heaven. In addition to living in the glamorous city, Arabella might even find a suitable husband there. Armed with beauty, virtue, and a benevolent godmother, the impetuous but impoverished Arabella embarked on her first London season with her mother's wish in mind: snare a rich husband.

On her way to London, Arabella's carriage breaks down outside the hunting lodge of the wealthy and socially prominent Robert Beaumaris. Fate cast her in his path. Arabella's only fault is impetuosity, and her pride is stung when she overhears a remark from her arrogant host, who accused her of being another petty female after his wealth. The proud, headstrong ingenue made a most startling claim — she was an heiress! A pretense that deeply amuses the jaded Beau.

To counter her white lie, Beaumaris launches her into high society, thereby subjecting her to all kinds of amorous fortune hunters in London and other embarrassments. Suddenly, Arabella found herself the talk of the ton and pursued by some of the most eligible young men of the day. But only one caught Arabella's fancy: Beaumaris, the handsome and dedicated bachelor. She should know better than to allow herself to be provoked by nonpareil Beau. But would her deceitful charade destroy her one chance for true love?

Beaumaris, however, although a most artful matrimonial dodger, badly underestimated his seemingly naive adversary. When compassionate Arabella rescues such unfortunate creatures as a mistreated chimney sweep and a mixed-breed mongrel, she foists them upon Beaumaris, who finds he rather enjoys the role of rescuer and is soon given the opportunity to prove his worth in the person of Bertram Tallant, the also impetuous young brother of Arabella.