The daughter of well-to-do tradespeople in the fictional mining town of Woodhouse, Alvina Houghton struggles to find excitement in her provincial surroundings and worries that she is condemned to become an old maid. After plans to elope with her lover to Australia and train as a nurse in London lead to nothing, she joins a travelling theatre group and succumbs to the charms of the dark, passionate Italian Ciccio. Although not enjoying today the same level of fame as "Sons and Lovers" or "Lady Chatterley's Lover," "The Lost Girl" was greatly successful in its time, winning the prestigious 1920 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and remains a classic Lawrence novel of sensual awakening and the yearning for freedom.