Madame Mathilde Loisel has always imagined herself an aristocrat, despite being born into a family of clerks (which she describes as an "accident of fate"). Her husband is a low-paid clerk who tries his best to make her happy but has little to give. Still, the young couple can afford the services of a young Breton girl as a servant. After much effort, he secures for them an invitation to a ball sponsored by the Ministry of Education.Madame Loisel refuses to go, for she has nothing to wear and wishes not to be embarrassed. Upset at her displeasure, Loisel gives her 400 francs - all the money he had been saving to go hunting with his friends - so she can buy a dress. Even after Madame Loisel does so, she is still unhappy because she has no jewels to wear with it. She spurns Loisel's idea of wearing fresh flowers instead, but takes his suggestion to borrow some jewelry from her friend, Madame Jeanne Forestier. She borrows a diamond necklace as her only ornamentation.Madame Loisel enjoys herself at the ball, dancing with influential men and reveling in their admiration. Once she and Loisel return home, though, she discovers that she has lost Jeanne's necklace. Unable to find it or anyone who knows where it might have gone, they resign themselves to buying a replacement. At the Palais-Royal shops, they find a similar necklace priced at 40,000 francs and bargain for it, eventually settling at 36,000. Loisel uses an inheritance from his father to cover half the cost and borrows the rest at high interest. Madame Loisel gives the necklace to Jeanne without mentioning the loss of the original, and Jeanne does not notice the difference.Mr. Loisel and Madame Loisel live in poverty for ten years, with him taking on night work as a copier to earn extra money and her sacrificing her beauty to do household chores on her own, while constantly bargaining with the clerks and vegetable sellers. They gave up their servant, and have moved to a poor apartment up many stairs. After all the loans are paid off, Madame Loisel encounters Jeanne on the Champs-Élysées, but Jeanne barely recognizes her due to her shabby clothing and unkempt appearance. Jeanne is also accompanied by her young daughter, of which little mention is made except by inference as the Loisels have no children. Madam Loisel tells Jeanne about the loss and replacement of the necklace and of the hard times she has endured on Jeanne's account. She blames her former friend for the past miserable 10 years. Jeanne reveals that the necklace she lent to Madame Loisel had contained fake diamonds and was worth no more than 500 francs.