Adapted by screenwriter Hossein Amini from Henry James' 1902 novel, The Wings of the Dove is the story of Kate Croy (Helena Bonham Carter), a lower-middle-class London girl who has the chance to escape her circumstances when she's taken in by her maternal Aunt Maude (Charlotte Rampling) after the death of her mother. Maude is a cold aristocrat who despises Kate's father (Michael Gambon) for dragging her sister into poverty. Maude's conditions for taking Kate under her wing include a small stipend for Kate's father and the requirement that father and daughter break off all contact. Moreover, Maude is determined to see Kate married to a man of means. And to that end, she forbids Kate to continue keeping company with the man Kate loves, common journalist Merton Densher (Linus Roache). Kate tries to have it both ways, agreeing to Maude's demands but sneaking out for trysts with Merton and visits with her father.

The tragic triangle of Millie (Alison Elliott), Kate (Helena Bonham Carter) and Merton (Linus Roache) makes The Wings of the Dove an unforgettable film.

Enter beautiful, frail, fabulously wealthy Millie Theale (Alison Elliott), an American on extended holiday in Europe. Kate and Millie are kindred spirits and quickly become fast friends. They are both free-spirited and open-minded in an age when women are supposed to be homemakers and childbearers. But whereas Kate is hardy and resilient, Millie is dying. Her European sojourn is a race against death, a determined effort to fill herself with experience and hold back the ravages of her body through the exercise of pure will.

The fateful intertwining of Kate's and Millie's futures happens when Maude learns of Kate's continuing involvement with Merton and threatens to cut her off. Faced with an unwanted choice between love and wealth, Kate attempts to orchestrate a union between Merton and Millie. If Merton can inherit Millie's fortune, then Kate can have both love and money after Millie's death. Distasteful as the plot seems on its face, it is fraught with artfully complicated elements. Kate's caring for Millie is genuine, and she hopes that Merton's attentions will bring Millie a measure of joy in her dying days. Kate's motives are not altogether selfish in other ways as well. Maude has threatened to leave Kate's father penniless if Kate does not sever her relationship with Merton.

There are a couple of missteps here. Nobody explains how a salaried employee like Merton can take leave of his newspaper job and afford to accompany Kate and Millie on an open-ended visit to Venice. In fact, if he has enough money for that, we wonder if Kate isn't just outright greedy. Elsewhere, Kate's decision to let the odious Lord Mark (Alex Jennings) in on the details of her scheme doesn't wash. Her stated reason is plenty powerful, but that reason is not served by her action.

For the most part, though, this is a masterful production. Amini and Softley's reshaping of James' story to focus on Kate instead of Millie allows the filmmakers to heighten the tragedy for all involved. Kate's character emerges in this version as more complicated and more human. She is not a vile person. Her concern for her father is sincere, and her willingness to sacrifice to protect him is admirable.

Still, Kate is foolish and unintentionally cruel, of course, in believing that she can so easily play games with the human heart -- Millie's in the first, most blatant instance, but Merton's and her own as well. Softley stages the seduction of Merton at a masked ball in Venice, and its atmosphere of recklessness, deception and danger is perfect. As Kate spills out her infamous proposal, a bright moon lights her eyes with the lunacy of a demon.