How It All Goes Down
Strether arrives in England and meets up with a frenemy named Waymarsh. But first, he also runs into a woman named Maria Gostrey, who decides to show him around the town. And a middle-aged American with a blah life can't say nay to attention from a younger woman.
It turns out that Strether has been sent on a mission by his rich fiancée, Mrs. Newsome, to track down her son Chad and bring him home to run the family business. Strether can't refuse, because Mrs. Newsome is sort of his sugar mama (and he might also actually like and respect her). The Newsome family is convinced that Chad is living an immoral life in Paris, boozing every night and carousing with different women—or worse yet, one woman who's got her claws in him.
When Strether finally runs into Chad, though, he's bowled over by how much of a charmer the little brat has become since moving to Europe. In fact, Chad is so cool that he makes the middle-aged Strether wonder if he himself hasn't let life pass him by back in the States. Strether's enjoying the Paris life way more than he'd anticipated, so he starts making up excuses to delay his trip home.
Cue the lady drama. Strether meets Marie de Vionnet, a woman Chad hangs out with a lot. But is Chad attracted to the ten-years-older Ms. Vionnet or to her daughter Jeanne? After some inquiries, Strether finds no evidence of any romance with either lady, and it dawns on him that Chad's life isn't immoral at all. If anything, he's just plain ole better than the folks living back in Woollett, Massachusetts.
Eventually, the Newsomes get impatient with Strether's delays. So Mrs. Newsome sends her daughter Sarah to see what the holdup is (yep, another ambassador). Strether crosses his fingers that Sarah will be as impressed by Chad's transformation as he's been. Any guesses whether that's the case?
Nope. Sarah thinks any possible changes that could happen to people away from the Newsome family are automatically bad changes. And that's that. So she gives Strether a choice: come back to America with Chad immediately, or don't come back at all. Strether decides not to come back at all, effectively breaking his engagement to Mrs. Newsome.
And so it looks like everything will be good for Strether in Paris. Which means one thing: here comes more drama! One day he's walking through the French countryside and sees Chad and Madame de Vionnet approaching a rural inn. Lightbulb! Those two ain't so innocent after all.
After he realizes that the two of them have a sexual relationship, he has to confront the fact that sex and the deception that goes along with it have been a part of what he's enjoyed about Paris so much. He's just been lying to himself that it was all a good, wholesome pleasure.
At the end of the book, Strether decides that he can't change who he is, so he's going to head back to the U. S. of A. He knows there's no place for him back with the Newsomes, but hey, they're part of the problem so that's a-okay. Before he leaves, he sees Maria Gostrey one last time. She begs him to stay with her, but he's through with Europe. Buh-bye!