A young Englishwoman named Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham-Carter) is travelling Italy with her older cousin in this British drama that is based on the works of E.M. Forster (Maggie Smith). Lucy encounters the endearing and free-spirited George Emerson in a hotel in Florence (Julian Sands). Lucy is captivated by George, but once she returns to England, she considers settling down with the affluent and formal Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis). When George re-enters Lucy's life, she is forced to choose between him and Cecil.
Part 2 Summary
Cecil Vyse, a person Lucy knew from England, joins her for time in Rome. Lucy refuses both of Cecil's requests to get married while they are in Italy. Lucy has returned to Windy Corner, in Surrey, England, where she grew up, as Part Two begins. This time she accepts Cecil's second proposal. Cecil, a polished London aesthete, despises the country life but is a desirable marriage because of his position and prestige. Being snobbish and putting on a pretentious air, he is a fairly amusing figure.
The Emersons are the new tenants of a nearby villa, according to the vicar, Mr. Beebe, who learned of the property's availability through a serendipitous encounter with Cecil in London. Cecil (who considers himself to be highly democratic) regarded Sir Harry Otway, the owner of the villa, as a snob, so he convinced them to go to the village in order to exact revenge on him. Lucy is angry with Cecil because she made a flimsy agreement for the elderly Misses Alan, who were also guests at the Pensione Bertolini, to rent the villa.
Part 2 Chapters
Fate becomes ironic as Mr. Beebe introduces the Emersons to Lucy's brother Freddy. Freddy asks George to join him for "a bathe" at a nearby pond in the woods. George, Freddy, and Mr. Beebe travel there. Freddy and George convinced Mr. Beebe to join them and stripped off before jumping in. Until Lucy, her mother, and Cecil came across them after cutting through the woods on their stroll, the men were having a fine time running through the bushes and splashing around in the pond.
Later, Freddy invites George to Windy Corner for a game of tennis. Lucy is initially embarrassed when she first meets George and Cecil, but she chooses to be courteous. Cecil agitates everyone by pacing and reading aloud from a light romance book that contains a scene that eerily mirrors George kissing Lucy in Fiesole. George offers Lucy another kiss when he discovers her in the yard by herself. Lucy realizes that since Miss Lavish, Charlotte's writer friend from Florence, wrote the book, she must have told Lucy about the kiss.
The book ends in Florence, where George and Lucy had departed without Mrs. Honeychurch's consent.
Lucy now understands that Charlotte had not discouraged or stopped her from going in and running into Mr. Emerson on that fateful day despite being aware of his presence. The tale ends with the promise of enduring love for both Lucy and George despite the fact that she "had estranged Windy Corner, probably permanently," despite what the appendix hints about reunion with her family.
