Although Mathilde Loisel was "pretty and charming... she had no dowry, no expectations," and yet she is never satisfied with the life she lives. She is "unhappy" and "suffered ceaselessly" because she feels that somehow her "beauty, grace and charm" should "take the place of family and birth." She constantly laments over all of the things she could never have but feels she deserves, and complains bitterly to her husband over the family's poor financial status. When, at last, her husband presents her with an invitation to an evening gala, Mathilde is still unsatisfied because she has nothing appropriate to wear. Even when her husband allows her to buy a gown with the money he has been saving to purchase a gun, she complains even further.
The solution, her husband decides, is to borrow jewels from her good friend, Madame Forestier, and, at last, Mathilde is happy. On the big night, she proves to be the belle of the ball, but at the end of the evening, she reverts to her old, unhappy self. The evening takes an even more drastic turn when Mathilde discovers that she has lost her friend's borrowed necklace. Mathilde's pride will not allow her to admit the accidental loss to Madame Forestier, so she and her husband buy time until they can arrange to purchase a replacement. For the next 10 years, they live the life of paupers in order to pay for the necklace which, of course, turns out to be made of paste. She loses her home, pride and looks while learning what suffering and misery really is.
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