This is a beautiful book and very original. It traces the lives of a few characters, many of them related, through 50 or so years of their lives. Woolf is a master of taking the reader inside the minds of her characters, using stream of consciousness, and this book shows her true talent at it. Nothing really "happened" as far as plot goes. It focuses on the inner lives of the characters and the way in which she describes them describing the world and their thoughts is brilliant.