Clarissa Dalloway, the protagonist of the novel, has a rich inner life that is often compromised by the trappings of her affluent upper-middle-class lifestyle in the glamorous Westminster neighborhood of London. For example, at the start of the novel, she is finalizing plans for a party, but the novel describes in detail all the deeper memories and ruminations that the superficial matter of the social event triggers in her mind. As a middle-aged Londoner living in the city in the years after World War I, Clarissa is aware of her age and the aging process, which brings existential issues around life and death to the surface on a regular basis. She lives with her husband, Richard, and her daughter, Elizabeth, but Peter Walsh, her old suitor, is coming to the evening’s party as well as an old friend, Sally Seton. These characters from her past inspire in Clarissa a host of complex feelings and memories, and her response to these emotions and past events make up a significant portion of the novel.

Clarissa’s old suitor, Peter Walsh has been living abroad in India since the end of World War I. He writes to Clarissa regularly, which suggests that his attachment to Clarissa has persisted since her rejection of his marriage proposal back when they were young friends enjoying leisure time at her family’s country home Bourton.