Clarissa Dalloway, a society lady in her early fifties, is preparing for a reception she is hosting at her home. In the morning, she leaves the house to buy flowers, which she loves very much, determined to decorate the house with them by evening. While strolling through London, she reminisces about her youth and first love. In another part of London, Septimus Warren Smith, a First World War veteran suffering from shell shock, goes with his wife Lucrezia to a psychiatrist's appointment. Smith's day intertwines with Clarissa and her friends' lives, converging when the party reaches its peak. Learning about Smith's tragedy, Clarissa reconsiders her life and attitudes towards death. A masterful novel by Virginia Woolf in which past, present, and future merge into a single significant day in June 1923.