After a family disaster, Lucy Snowe travels from her native England to the French-speaking city of Villette to teach at a girls' school. There, Lucy becomes progressively closer to the irascible, autocratic, and male chauvinist professor, M. Paul Emanuel. However, a group of conspiring antagonists work to keep the two apart, on the grounds that a union between a catholic and a protestant is impossible.

Villette is noted for its acute tracing of Lucy's psychology. The novel, in a gothic setting, simultaneously explores themes of isolation, doubling, displacement and subversion, and each of their impacts upon the protagonist's psyche. Villette is sometimes celebrated as an exploration of gender roles and repression. Villette also explores isolation and cross-cultural conflict in Lucy's attempts to master the French language, as well as conflicts between her English Protestantism and Catholicism.