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When Lucy Honeychurch and Charlotte Bartlett arrive at the Bertolini Pension, the women are upset that their rooms view a courtyard instead of the promised view ofFlorence. An uncouth man, Mr. Emerson, offers to swap rooms butCharlotte refuses. Clergyman Beebe, however, rescues the situation and the swap takes place. Lucy, a young woman in Italyfor the first time, wants to take in all the sights but is slowed down byCharlotte, her spinsterly chaperone. Fortunately, another English tourist, Miss Lavish, offers to take her to Santa Croce. After an exciting walk, Miss Lavish abandons Lucy who enters the church alone. Since Miss Lavish kept the guidebook, Lucy finds herself "in Santa Croce with No Baedeker." She has no choice but to tour the church in remembrance of what she has read. By accident, Lucy meets the Emersons, who show her how to enjoy the church with their own unfiltered senses. Lucy insists on points the book had highlighted but "the pernicious charm ofItalyworked on her, and, instead of acquiring information, she began to be happy." While his son, George, is at a distance, Mr. Emerson proposes that Lucy take an interest in him. Despite this insult, Mr. Emerson helps her to not have the proper aesthetic experience. Rather, she is "inflated spiritually," "thoroughly happy, and having a splendid time." Invigorated by a rainy afternoon spent playing the piano, Lucy avoids being ensnared by Pension gossip with Beebe and Miss Catherine Alan and walks into the now sunnyFlorence. After purchasing some photos of famous paintings, Lucy witnesses passion boil over into murder in the Piazza della Signoria. As an Italian is knifed, he looks to Lucy and opens his mouth as if to give a message "and a stream of red came out." Lucy faints and her pictures are soiled with blood. George, who happens to be in the Piazza, rescues Lucy and tosses the besmirched photos into the River Arno. Art has met life and "something happen[ed] to the living: they had come to a situation where character tells, and where Childhood enters upon the branching paths of Youth." While they recover, they watch the River Arno. Lucy's confrontation with reality disables any chance of a "return to the old life!" Fearful of her feelings for George, she shops withCharlotte the next day instead of joining a tourist excursion. They run into Miss Lavish in the Piazza trying to salvage the murder scene for use in her novel. Lucy and Charlotte leave her and bump into Mr. Eager, who invites them on a drive—a treat he reserves for the most deserving—to viewFiesole. Mr. Beebe manages to be included on the trip but fails to consult with Mr. Eager before doubling the party to include the undeserving. Despite careful planning, Lucy finds herself in a carriage with Mr. Eager and the two people he disapproves of the most: Mr. Emerson, for killing his wife, and Miss Lavish, "a shoddy lady writer." Mr. Eager proposes that they discover the very spot where Alessio Baldovinetti made his Tuscan landscapes. They go to the bluff with this in mind but instead of rediscovery, Lucy falls into a bed of violets and George—enraptured by the beauty of the scenery and the lovely woman lying in flowers before him—imprudently kisses Lucy. This leadsCharlotte into paranoid delusions that Lucy will be exposed to others as the beloved of George, a man of the lower class who did not have such permission. The party returns toFlorence during a storm and whatever "game" was being played on the hillside has been "lost." A Miltonic lightning bolt seals off the possibility of return to the garden where play and liberty were possible. Charlotte, who witnessed the kiss, ponders over who else knows. George chooses to remain in nature, and walks back. The storm's violence allows the party one brief moment of lost self-control but then they recover their roles.Charlotte struggles to recover Lucy from being like the Emersons; Lucy wants "to be truthful." Worried that George may strike again,Charlotte packs Lucy off toRome where they have a miserable time with the Vyse family. Cecil Vyse, induced to take the two women to St. Peter's, notices Lucy as more than a commonplace English tourist. He sees that Italy has given her "light" and "shadow" and made her a "woman of Leonardo," a body for intellectual admiration, not engagement. Cecil wants to purchase her. Back at Windy Corner inEngland, Lucy accepts Cecil as her "fiasco" and society is pleased with the impending match. Believing he has purchased Lucy, Cecil considers how to finish Lucy's education while he dreams of ways to redecorate the drawing-room at Windy Corner as "more distinctive." Lucy's brother, Freddy, and Beebe are inwardly disappointed; even Mrs. Honeychurch shows signs of disillusionment with Cecil, her dream son-in-law. This results from his reaction to suffering through an announcement party. He hypothesizes that engagements should be private— like a business transaction. In the ensuing discussion, Lucy shows her brain and pains Cecil: he wants to look at his Leonardo, not see her in moral judgment amongst Michelangelo's figures in the Sistine Chapel. Walking home, the party runs into Sir Harry Otway, who has cottages to rent. After a discussion of the ramifications of the cottages, Cecil disapproves of the knight alone to Lucy, who begins to wonder if anything from her hometown can meet with Cecil's approval. Chiding her for always leading him on the road, the lovers take the path through the woods. As they near Windy Corner, Cecil attempts to be romantic and asks Lucy if he might kiss her but "passion should believe itself irresistible." Their kiss proves to be a failure. Strangely, it leads Lucy to pronounce the name Emerson. In an attempt to pull a prank on the knight, Cecil arranges for the Emersons—a pair he meets mispronouncing names in the art galleries inLondon— to take a cottage on his recommendation. This angers Lucy, who had been trying to bring Miss Alans to the same cottage. As the Emersons arrive, Lucy and Cecil leave to visit Mrs. Vyse inLondon. There, Lucy glimpses her future life of playing piano for grandchildren. Mrs. Vyse comforts her when she awakes from a nightmare about a kiss. Back at Windy Corner, Lucy, Cecil, and Mrs. Honeychurch are on their way to visit a neighbor when they run into Freddy, George, and Beebe in the midst of bathing in theSacred Lake. Instead of a proper social encounter with George, for which Lucy had spent hours rehearsing, Lucy bows to him while he is half-naked. She finds him beautiful and clearly more her type than the contracted Vyse. During a dinner party, Vyse refuses to play tennis and Lucy seizes on the refusal as indicative of Vyse generally and breaks off the engagement. What really set her off, however, was Cecil's insistent reading from a romance novel written by Miss Lavish and another uninvited kiss from George. The novel happens to have a scene in it made up of information thatCharlotte provided about the kiss atFiesole. Having been betrayed byCharlotte, Lucy plays the piano as she thinks about her next step. Lucy decides to catch up with Miss Alans inGreece. Tickets in hand, Lucy encounters Mr. Emerson in Beebe's rectory and he brings her to her senses. Lucy extracts herself from the muddle she has created and accepts union with George. They return to the Pension inFlorence to enjoy a room with a view.
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