"Cannery Row is just a few blocks long. Within its limits are the sardine fisheries which give the Row its name. The story that builds up around this area and the memorable characters who inhabit it is infused with warmth, understanding, and a great fund of human values." -- From inside book jacket.

When the Countess Ellen Olenska returns from Europe, fleeing her brutish husband, her rebellious independence and passionate awareness of life stir the educated sensitivity of Newland Archer, already engaged to be married to her cousin May Welland, "that terrifying product of the social system he belonged to and believed in, the young girl who knew nothing and expected everything." As the consequent drama unfolds, Edith Wharton's sharp ironic wit...

When impetuous Helen Schlegel believes herself to be in love with Paul, the youngest of the Wilcox sons, she sparks off a connection between the two families that leads to collision.