"Justine" is narrated by an impoverished Irishman, not named in this novel, but who is referred to as "Darley" in the later novels of the quartet. He is a struggling writer and schoolmaster, with a background and a number of personal experiences similar autobiographically to those of the author himself. From a remote Greek island, he retells his time in Alexandria and his tragic romance with Justine – a beautiful, mysterious Jewish woman who was born poor and is now married to a wealthy Egyptian Copt, Nessim.