The Hours is the story of three women: Clarissa Vaughan, a beloved friend of an ailing poet, who one fine New York morning goes about planning a party in his honor; Laura Brown, who in a 1950s Los Angeles suburb slowly begins to feel the constraints of a perfect family and home; and Virginia Woolf, recuperating with her husband in a London suburb, and beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway.

By the end of the novel, the stories intertwine in remarkable ways, and finally come together in an act of subtle and haunting grace.