Madame Bovary follows Emma Bovary, a doctor's wife in provincial France who becomes disillusioned with her mundane life and craves luxury, romance, and excitement. Seeking escape, she engages in affairs and overspends on lavish goods, hoping to fulfill her fantasies. Instead, her actions lead to mounting debt, heartbreak, and social ruin. Ultimately overwhelmed by despair, Emma takes her own life, leaving her husband Charles devastated. The novel is a critique of romantic idealism, materialism, and the constraints of bourgeois society.