The protagonist of the story is a woman who has been diagnosed with a nervous disorder, likely postpartum depression, and is prescribed the "rest cure" by her husband, who is also her physician. As part of this treatment, she is confined to a room in an old mansion with yellow wallpaper. The narrator becomes increasingly obsessed with the wallpaper and begins to see a woman trapped behind it, mirroring her own sense of entrapment and lack of agency in her life.