Breakfast at Tiffany's is notable because the main character, Holly Golightly, is one of Capote's best-known creations and an American cultural icon.The novella tells the story of a one-year (autumn 1943 to autumn 1944) friendship between Holly Golightly, and an unnamed narrator. The two are both tenants in a brownstone apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side. Holly Golightly (age 18-19) is a country girl turned New York café society girl. As such, she carouses and entertains all the rich men she can find, hoping to snag one as a marriage partner. According to Capote, Golightly is not "precisely" a call-girl or a prostitute but rather one of "the authentic American geishas." Holly, who likes to stun people with carefully selected tidbits from her personal life or her outspoken viewpoints on various topics, slowly reveals herself to the narrator who finds himself fascinated by her curious lifestyle. In the end Holly fears that she will never know what is really hers until after she has thrown it away.

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