The Custom of the Country

Undine Spragg is a Midwestern girl who tries to ascend in New York City society. The Spraggs, a family of mid-westerners from the fictional city of Apex who have made money through somewhat shady financial dealings, arrive in New York City at the encouragement of their beautiful, ambitious, but socially-naive daughter, Undine.

She marries Ralph Marvell, a member of an old New York family that no longer enjoys significant wealth. Before her wedding, Undine encounters an acquaintance from Apex named Elmer Moffatt, a character with "a genuine disdain for religious piety and social cant", as the scholar Elaine Showalter witnesses. Undine begs him not to do anything that will compromise her wedding to Ralph.