The book was written 100 years ago and it is telling about the English people, about their habits and their lives. The main character is a young middle-class English girl called Lucy Honeychurch. Lucy is going to spend the summer with her cousin Charlotte Bartlett in Florence, Italy. They have two rooms in Pension Bertolini, but only one of these rooms has a view. At the dinner they speculate who should get the room with a view- if Lucy or her older, serious cousin, who is traveling just like an entourage. Two men listen to their conversation and offered them that they could take their rooms. Girls are confused and do not know, what to do. They accept it and later are told by their known Mr. Beebe, a clergyman, that the two men are Mr. Emerson and his son George. Charlotte don´t like them - she is quite old-fashioned. On the other day, Lucy is going to a walk wit Miss Lavish, a clever woman who they met the previous evening. They walk for a while, but after it Ms Lavish sees a friend of her and leaves Lucy alone. She doesn´t know, what to do, so she goes to a church which is quite near to her. There she meets Emersons and talks to them, especially to the old Mr Emerson. She thinks they are not so bad as everybody in the pension say. Later in the afternoon in the pension she plays the piano-she can play very good-and decides to do something, with what her cousin would disapprove. Lucy was always a good girl, but Italy changes her. She is still the good girl, but she feels like grown up now. She goes out and entered the Piazza (a square), where she sees a tragedy- there are two Italians arguing about money, but one of them is killed. She faints and the young George Emerson, who was there by a chance, gets her home. Everybody in the pension is shocked, only Ms Lavish decide that she will write a novel about it. She wants to write about two men arguing about a woman. Lucy thinks it is silly and realizes, how much did she change her significances. The next day two groups of people drive in carriages to Fiesole (a town near Florence). They have a break and Lucy with an Italian boy-driver-travel in a carriage. She is looking for Mr Beebe and for another clergyman, Mr Eager. Lucy finds a place with many violets, so they stop there. She suddenly falls down and a man goes against her - it is George Emerson. Without knowing what is going on, he helps her to stand up and kiss her. She is confused, but it is more complicated-her cousin Charlotte has seen her.