In the provincial towns of Normandy, France, in the first half of the nineteenth century, Emma Bovary lives caught between everyday duties and the luxurious life she imagines. The constraints of rural society and the conventions of bourgeois life stand in opposition to her yearning for love, freedom, and beauty. Her marriage to Charles does not resolve this conflict; a world takes shape around them in which desires collide with social expectations, financial dependence, and the monotony of life.
