Young Catherine Morland lives in a world of fantasy, where the intrigue of her favourite Gothic Romances is the truth of her private world, imposing itself throughout her life---but as she soon finds, life is both more and less mysterious than her guilty fireside pleasure would have her believe.

The plain and sheltered daughter of an enterprising, but overprotective clergyman, Catherine is whisked away at seventeen by family friends into the socialite haven of Bath's winter festivities where she is exposed to characters both trustworthy and dangerous, but all make her question
her perception of the world. Among them, there is Henry---the amiable but aloof love interest. Isabella---the trouble-making, overly flirtatious confidant with secret designs. And John, the self-involved braggart with his own delusions. Through these people, and the events that
entwine them all, Catherine begins to see the world the way it truly is, for better or worse.

Although Northanger Abbey was Jane Austen's first completed novel, it was not published until after her death.