Film Mire Nair je posnet po klasičnem romanu Williama Makepeacea Thackeryja iz 19. stoletja in govori o ničevosti tedanje angleške družbe. V središču zgodbe je bistro in ambiciozno dekle revnega porekla Becky Sharp, ki je odločena splezati po družbeni lestvici in narediti vtis na premožno družino aristokrata Pitta Crawleyja, kjer se zaposli kot varuška. Lepa Becky kmalu zapelje Crawleyjevega sina Rawdona in se z njim poroči. Toda njen ugled in finančno varnost kmalu ogrozi Rawdonovo igranje na srečo in popivanje, zaradi česar si dekle hitro najde novo žrtev: čednega in vplivnega markiza Steynea.
The British Empire flowers; exotic India colors English imaginations. Becky Sharp, the orphaned daughter of a painter and a singer, leaves a home for girls to be a governess, armed with pluck, a keen wit, good looks, fluent French, and an eye for social advancement. Society tries its best to keep her from climbing. An episodic narrative follows her for 20 years, through marriage, Napoleonic wars, a child, loyalty to a school friend, the vicissitudes of the family whose daughters she instructed, and attention from a bored marquess who collected her father's paintings. Honesty tempers her schemes. No aristocrat she, nor bourgeois, just spirited, intelligent, and irrepressible.