Set in mid-nineteenth-century Paris, Cousin Betty follows Lisbeth Fischer, an impoverished and unmarried woman whose long-standing jealousy and resentment toward her wealthy relatives gradually develop into a calculated scheme of revenge. Joining forces with the beautiful and manipulative Valerie Marneffe, Bette exploits the desires of powerful men and brings ruin upon those around her, while Baron Hulot's obsession with pleasure steadily destroys his family's fortune and reputation. As part of Balzac's The Human Comedy, the novel explores love, obsession, jealousy, and revenge while exposing the corruption, moral hypocrisy, and destructive influence of money and desire in French society.