The Rainbow chronicles the lives of three generations of the Brangwen family of Nottinghamshire, and is a metaphysical inquiry into the possibilities that human relationships hold amid the uncompromising circumstances of industrial culture. Throughout the novel the rainbow symbolizes each character's search for self-fulfilment.

The novel concentrates on the passionate natures of the various Brangwens, in particular those of Ursula who is of the third generation of the family. The frankness with which Lawrence treated sexuality caused the book to be seized by the police and banned shortly after publication in 1915.
(from the publisher)