Sweet and sensitive Ruth Wilcox is terminally ill. Her disease is incurable and as she looks upon the end of her days, the destiny of Howards End, a house belonging to her family and with a great personal value, is her greatest source of unrest, thus her children and husband only value the house through monetary eyes and will, probably, sell it after she is gone. A solution to her worries presents itself, however, when, on a trip to Germany, the Wilcoxes come into contact with the friendly and humane Shlegel sisters. Drawn to Margareth Shlegel, who has a disposition much like her own, in some aspects, Ruth bequeaths Howards End to her, not knowing that this act will do much more than save a house. It might have the power to save those who fell, long ago, in the temptations of society and in the holes of indifference and greed.