In this vivid portrait of one day in a woman's life, Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party she is to give that evening, while in her mind she is much more than a perfect society hostess.

As she readies her house she is flooded with memories and, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa re-examines the choices she has made, hesitantly looking ahead to growing old.

Undeniably triumphant, this is the inspired novelistic outline of human consciousness.