A young lady on the insalubrious fringe of Parisian high society, stricken with consumption, renounces the love of her life. Only when confronted with her imminent death does the object of her love realise that the sacrifice she has made was for him alone. A figure on the margins of society becomes the victim of rigid, bourgeois conventions. Steering clear of sentimentality, Verdi takes his trademark theme and explores the inner motivations of the characters, producing one of his most popular operas, a tragedy of heartrending proportions.