Washington Square The book Washington Square by Henry James tells the story of Catherine, a doctor's young daughter whose wife had died when Catherine was a child. Her mother had left a great fortune that she was supposed to own and her father himself had saved a lot of money from his work as years past. At 21 years old, she met a suspicious handsome young man who has no work. They started seeing each other but her father did not like it at all. As the they got to know one another, the doctor tried hard to prove to the young lady that the man she wanted was in fact a lazy and selfish person only interested in her money.