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Madame Loisel marries Monsieur Loisel
Mme. Loisel marries a minor clerk in the Ministry of Education. -
M. Loisel brings home an invitation to an evening reception
M. Loisel gifts Mme. Loisel the invitation from the Minister of Education and Mme. Georges Ramponneau. She refuses at first but accepts to go only if her husband gives her money for the appropriate attire. She is given 400 francs to buy a dress. -
Mme. Loisel borrows a necklace for the reception
Unsatisfied with the lack of jewelry her outfit includes, she borrows a diamond necklace from her friend, Mme. Forestier. -
Mme. Loisel attends the reception and loses the necklace
At the party, she gains a lot of attention and admiring glances. Somewhere along the way, she loses the borrowed necklace and searches for it with her husband but never finds it. -
M. and Mme. Loisel buy a fake necklace and return it to Mme. Forestier
To keep from being seen as a thief, Mme. Loisel spends forty thousand francs on a replacement necklace. Mme. Forestier accepts the necklace without noticing the replacement. -
Mme. Loisel spends the next 10 years working and paying off the debt from the necklace
The next 10 years are spent doing hard housework and bargaining, doing anything she can to get the money back. -
Madame Loisel finds out that the original necklace was only worth 500 francs
Running into Mme. Forestier, Mme. Loisel brings up the incident with her. Mme. Forestier admits that the necklace was only 500 francs instead of the thirty six thousand francs she had spent on the replacement necklace.