On a sunny day in June, Clarissa Dalloway, elegant and vivacious, is getting ready for a party and exulting in the vibrant swell of London. As Clarissa's preparations take her from the golden morning to the glittering evening, she muses on the choices she made as a young woman, the romances that have enriched her life, and the passage of time. In another part of London, war hero Septimus Smith is suffering from shell shock - what we would now term PTSD - and is haunted by the death of his friend. He finds himself teetering on the brink of madness, unable to leave his wounds behind. Over the course of a single day, the lives of Clarissa and Septimus will interweave and finally converge as the party reaches its climax.