William Makepeace Thackeray

Before taking up her new post as a governess, the artful and ambitious Becky Sharp spends a brief period at the family home of her friend Amelia Sedley. Passive, pampered and utterly reliant on others, Amelia is the opposite of her scheming and ruthless friend. While Becky tries to ensnare the wealthy and vain Jos Sedley, Amelia desires nothing more than to be betrothed to the self-obsessed and raffish soldier George Osborne. Meanwhile, Captain William...

Follows the adventures of an eighteenth-century Irish rogue whose opportunism takes him from the farm to the battlefield and ultimately into high society as the husband of a widowed aristocrat.

Becky is determined to make something of herself. She accepts a job as a nanny for the children of Sir Pitt Crawley. Becky catches the eye of Crawley's son Rawdon. Becky is introduced to London's most exclusive social circle, where she becomes re-acquainted with Amelia. Becky weds Rawdon, but the social and economic stability she dreamed of begins to collapse when he begins drowning his troubles, and soon she turns to the powerful Marquess of Steyne...