Into their world comes Milly Theale, an enormously rich young American woman who had previously met and fallen in love with Densher, although she has never revealed her feelings.

Kate and Aunt Maud welcome Milly to London, and the American heiress enjoys great social success.

With Kate as a companion, Milly goes to see an eminent physician, Sir Luke Strett, because she worries that she is suffering from an incurable disease.

Densher sees her one last time before he leaves for London, where he eventually receives news of Milly's death.

In his autobiography James wrote of The Wings of the Dove as his attempt to wrap her dying in the "beauty and dignity of art".

[1] However, as he also said in the preface to the New York Edition text of the novel, James had to prepare the situation that was to occupy Milly for the last months of her life.

In his preface to the New York Edition, James spent much time confessing to supposed faults in the novel: defective structure, characters not as well presented as they could be, and a general failure to realise his initial plan for the book.

The first television production of The Wings of the Dove, presented in 1952 on Westinghouse Studio One on CBS, was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and featured Charlton Heston in one of his earlier roles as Merton Densher.

It starred Mildred Dunnock as Susan Shephard, Norah Howard as Mrs. Lowder, Edmund Purdom as Richard Denning (Merton Densher in the novel), Pippa Scott as Milly Temple (Theale in the novel), and Betsy von Furstenberg as Kate Croy.

Directed by Frith Banbury, it starred Gene Anderson as Kate Croy, Susannah York as Milly Theale, Wendy Hiller as Susan Shephard, Elspeth March as Maud Lowder, and James Donald as Merton Densher.

Iain Softley directed the 1997 adaptation starring Helena Bonham Carter as Kate Croy, Alison Elliott as Milly Theale, and Linus Roache as Merton Densher.