Indiana is the story's heroine, a young noblewoman descended from French colonial settlers from Île Bourbon who lives in France. Indiana is married to an older ex-army officer named Colonel Delmare and suffers from the lack of passion in her life. Indiana does not love Delmare and searches for someone who will love her passionately. Her cousin Ralph is in love with her, but she overlooks him and falls in love with their well-spoken neighbor, Raymon de Ramiere. Indiana escapes the house to faithfully present herself in Raymon's apartments in the middle of the night, but they don't get along and Colonel Delmare takes Indiana to Île Bourbon. Indiana returns to France on a perilous sea journey during the French Revolution of 1830, where she reconnects with Raymon, but also with Ralph, which further complicate matters. The novel is an exploration of nineteenth-century female desire complicated by class constraints and by social codes about infidelity.