Kate Chopin presents to the audience, Edna Pontellier, a woman struggling with her views on life and what it means to be a woman at a time when these views are shameful and unorthodox.

Married with children on the Louisiana Gulf Coast in New Orleans, Edna finds herself drawn to Robert Lebrun. All the while she is shown to have two confidants giving her different reasons as to why she should conform to society or not.