High society hostess Clarissa Dalloway is throwing a party. On the surface, she is vivacious and sociable, yet her inner monologue reveals glimpses of a different reality: a woman isolated in love and dissatisfied with life. Clarissa's life is contrasted with that of an intended but ill-fated party guest, Septimus Warren Smith, for whom a post-war life is a struggle. Both characters express a shared longing to find love and meaning just as relevant to a human experience when the novel was published in 1925 as it remains today.

Considered one of Virginia Woolf's most accomplished novels, Mrs Dalloway weaves in and out of the thoughts and lives of the central character and back forth in time in a lyrical stream of consciousness. It remains a testament to Woolf's unique and timeless talent.