Madeline travels to complete her education, accompanied by the Countess.

A series of assaults by shadowy foes cannot dissuade Madeline from unraveling the mystery of her father's past and pursuing her paramour, De Sevignie.

Madeline uncovers the secret of her own noble origins and her virtue proves its strength through a series of trials and tribulations.

How much I am obliged to you; and when you have finished Udolpho, we will read the Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you.

6Though Clermont, as well as the other "horrid novels", were once thought to be the creations of Jane Austen's imagination, research in the first half of the 20th century by Michael Sadleir and Montague Summers confirmed that they did actually exist and stimulated renewed interest in the Gothic.