This brilliant book portrays a love story between Marguerite Gautier, a courtesan who is suffering from tuberculosis, and a young bourgeois by the name of Armand Duval. The story is told by Duval to the narrator of the book. Camille is called "Lady of the Camellias" because she wears a white camellia when she is available to her lover and a red one when poor health prevents her from making love. It was first published in 1848.