The novel touched on controversial topics for its time, such as free love, contraception, abortion, lesbianism, and mental illness.

[2] The book describes the lives of eight female friends after their graduation in 1933 from Vassar College, beginning with the marriage of one of them, Kay Strong, and ending with her funeral in 1940.

Each character struggles with different issues, including sexism in the work place, child-rearing, financial difficulties, family crises, and sexual relationships.

As highly educated women from affluent backgrounds, they must strive for autonomy and independence in a time when a woman's role is still largely restricted to marriage and childbirth.

[citation needed] Kay Strong: Marries Harald Petersen, who is involved in theater management and stage directing.

Her death at the end of the book is mysterious; no one knows whether she fell from the window on the twentieth floor of the Vassar Club, while airplane spotting, or whether she jumped.

Pokey's father gives her a plane so she is able to commute to Cornell Agricultural School; her mother, upon learning that Harald was arrested at a labor demonstration, is devastated that a "jailbird" once dined at the Prothero home.

He tells her that "things" (i.e., sex) can be a lot better between them if she would go see a "lady doctor" (so that he wouldn't have to use withdrawal, which he did use in this instance, or condoms, in order to prevent a pregnancy).

Her mother suggests that she postpone her wedding, and to see Dick and explore her feelings for him, and in any case to obtain birth control, but Dottie rejects those ideas and marries Brook on schedule, and soon thereafter is pregnant with her husband's child.

The Group assembles at the pier to greet her arrival, where they find Lakey accompanied by the Baroness, who, it transpires, is her lesbian lover.

[citation needed] Priss Hartshorn: An idealistic believer in the FDR program, she marries Dr. Sloan Crockett, a pediatrician.

Her mother has her "tutored in every conceivable subject", including athletics, musical instruments, outdoor activities and crafts.

She catches Kay's husband kissing another woman, Norine, a Vassar girl who was involved in left politics and not in The Group.

[citation needed] Libby MacAusland: A "tall, pretty blonde", who majored in English and is determined to break into the New York publishing industry.

A Norwegian baron and ski jumper, Nils Aslund, tries to seduce her by reading Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love".

Mary McCarthy studied literature at Vassar College and graduated in 1933, which is the class year of her group of eight characters.

In parts of the book where McCarthy discusses sex, such as when Dottie loses her virginity, the author claims to come from her memories with past lovers, as an observer.

McCarthy denied being a feminist or writing for the "second-wave of feminism" as she believed in equality and freedom of rights but did not view it as a gender issue.

"[6] When an editor suggested to Candace Bushnell that she write "the modern-day version of The Group", she wrote Sex and the City, a collection of revealing essays that became the popular TV series and film.

[7] The book was the basis for the 1966 Sidney Lumet-directed film, The Group, starring Candice Bergen as Lakey, Joan Hackett as Dottie, and Elizabeth Hartman as Priss.

It was adapted by Moya O'Shea, produced/Directed by Tracey Neale, and starred Gayle Hunnicutt, Rebecca Front, Teresa Gallagher, Joanna Weir, Tara Ward, Laurel Lefkow, Lorelei King, Moya O'Shea, Mark Caven, Henry Goodman, and William Hope.

[citation needed] The book appears in a season three episode of the television series Mad Men titled "The Color Blue" (2009, S03E10).

In the following episode of American Dreams, one of the main characters, Helen Pryor, reads the book and she says that "her whole world is falling apart" because of it.

[citation needed] In the film The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), the character of Pookie Adams (Liza Minnelli) can be seen clutching a copy of The Group when she departs the bus after her first encounter with love interest Jerry Payne.

[citation needed] In Season 1 Episode 1 of The Bob Newhart Show titled "Fly the Unfriendly Skies" The book can be seen behind Suzanne Pleshette when she is sitting on the couch crying.

In Dorothy Allison’s ‘’Bastard Out Of Carolina’’, Bone looks forward to reading the paperback copy she snuck out of the library.