Dorian Gray arrives at Basil Hallward's studio, where Lord Henry Wotton joins the painting session uninvited.

Dorian impulsively wishes that Basil's portrait would age and decay in his place so he can stay forever young.

Dorian tells Lord Henry he has fallen deeply in love with a young actress named Sybil Vane.

Basil, Lord Henry, and Dorian attend the theater, where Sybil delivers a flat and uninspired performance as Juliet.

Dorian visits Sybil backstage after the play and coldly rejects her, ignoring her tears and pleas.

Lord Henry arrives at Dorian's home and reveals that Sybil Vane has poisoned herself and died.

Dorian has the portrait secretly moved by a framer into a locked upstairs room to which only he holds the key.

Years pass and Dorian retains his youthful appearance while scandals and misfortune accumulate around his associates.

Basil confronts Dorian about damaging rumors linking him to ruined reputations and suspicious deaths throughout London.

Dorian stabs Basil Hallward in the neck inside the forbidden room, killing him.

Alan Campbell, after being blackmailed by Dorian, uses his chemistry expertise to destroy Basil's body.

James Vane corners Dorian at gunpoint outside an opium den and orders him to make peace with God.

Dorian steps under a streetlamp, showing his youthful face and convincing James Vane he has the wrong man.

James Vane is accidentally shot and killed during a hunting party at Dorian's country estate.

Dorian's servants discover his withered, aged corpse on the floor before the restored, beautiful portrait.

Dorian Gray's destruction begins the moment Lord Henry Wotton arrives at Basil Hallward's studio and introduces him to a philosophy that prizes beauty and pleasure above all else. Dorian makes a fatal wish that Basil's portrait would age in his place, granting him eternal youth and setting the novel's central curse in motion. His first great cruelty comes when he rejects his love Sybil Vane after a poor performance, and her subsequent suicide marks the first visible corruption of the enchanted portrait. As years pass, scandals accumulate around Dorian while he locks the increasingly hideous portrait away and descends deeper into vice. His crimes escalate to murder when he kills Basil and coerces a chemist named Alan Campbell into destroying the body, narrowly escaping death at the hands of Sybil's vengeful brother James. Dorian's attempt to destroy the portrait with the murder weapon ends in his own death, his body aged and withered while the painting is miraculously restored.

The rise and fall of Dorian Gray's corrupted soul.

Basil tells Lord Henry how he first encountered Dorian at a party hosted by Lady Brandon.

Lord Henry visits his uncle Lord Fermor to learn about Dorian's tragic aristocratic family backstory.

At a lunch hosted by Lady Agatha, Dorian watches Lord Henry speak with rapt attention and growing fascination.

Lord Henry receives a telegram from Dorian announcing that he and Sybil Vane are engaged.

James Vane promises to kill anyone who harms Sybil before departing on a ship bound for Australia.

Basil and Lord Henry meet at a restaurant called the Bristol and discuss Dorian's unexpected engagement.

Dorian arrives at the Bristol and describes how Sybil's recent performance as Rosalind completely enchanted him.

Dorian writes a penitent letter to Sybil, intending to apologize and restore their relationship.

Basil visits Dorian the morning after Sybil's death and is appalled by Dorian's cold, dismissive attitude.

The St. James Gazette, sent by Lord Henry, reports that Sybil's inquest returned a verdict of death by misadventure.

Dorian grows obsessed over many years with a yellow book about a glamorous young Parisian given to him by Lord Henry.

Dorian attends an evening dinner at Lady Narborough's the night after murdering Basil, appearing perfectly composed.

Dorian spends hours burning Basil Hallward's coat, bag, and other belongings in his fireplace.

Dorian finds his old acquaintance Adrian Singleton reduced to a hollow opium addict in a disreputable den.

Dorian tells Lord Henry he has gently ended his flirtation with a young lower-class woman named Hetty.

The secondary events of Dorian Gray's story reveal the social machinery that enables and responds to his corruption. Lord Henry's manipulation takes root at Lady Agatha's lunch and is deepened by the yellow book about a young Parisian he gives Dorian, which shapes his worldview for years. The Vane family's vulnerability is established through James's fierce protectiveness and Mrs. Vane's shallow approval of the engagement, while the inquest's verdict of death by misadventure demonstrates how aristocratic privilege quietly buries wrongdoing. After murdering Basil, Dorian maintains his social facade at Lady Narborough's dinner and methodically destroys all evidence, even as former companions like Adrian Singleton collapse into ruin. These events collectively paint a portrait of a society that enables Dorian's destruction through its own vanity, willful blindness, and appetite for spectacle.

The hidden world behind Dorian's life of pleasure.

Dorian becomes despondent realizing Basil's portrait will stay eternally beautiful while his own body ages and decays.

Basil presents the completed portrait to Dorian as a gift, declaring it his rightful property.

Dorian chooses to spend the afternoon with Lord Henry rather than keeping his promise to visit Basil.

James Vane confronts his mother and discovers that he was born out of wedlock.

After returning home from rejecting Sybil, Dorian notices for the first time a streak of cruelty in the portrait's expression.

Dorian resolves to reform his cruel behavior and return to Sybil after contemplating the altered portrait.

Lord Henry advises Dorian to regard Sybil's suicide as beautiful and to avoid any connection with the scandal.

Basil asks to exhibit the portrait in Paris; Dorian refuses and swears Basil will never see it again.

Dorian tells Basil he will show him his soul and escorts him to the locked forbidden room.

Dorian sees that one hand in the portrait has become stained with blood after he murders Basil.

A woman in the opium den calls Dorian Prince Charming, alerting a nearby James Vane to Dorian's presence.

The woman confirms to James Vane that Dorian Gray is indeed the man he has hunted for years.

Dorian faints at the Selby Royal conservatory after spotting what appears to be James Vane's face at the window.

Dorian hints to Lord Henry that he may have killed Basil; Lord Henry dismisses the idea as entirely unlike him.

Dorian examines the portrait hoping his kindness to Hetty has changed it, but finds it more hideous than before.

Dorian's fate is determined by a chain of pivotal decisions and discoveries, each one deepening his moral ruin beyond recovery. The sequence begins with his despondency over the portrait's immortal beauty and his fatal wish, followed by the first shattering revelation that the portrait truly changes in response to his cruelty toward Sybil. Lord Henry's counsel to embrace Sybil's death as beautiful rather than face its consequences is the turning point that sets Dorian on a permanent course of denial and self-justification. The confrontations that follow — Basil's refused request to exhibit the portrait and Dorian's theatrical decision to show Basil his corrupted soul — escalate toward inevitable violence. The blood-stained hand in the portrait, the chance words in the opium den that expose Dorian to James Vane, and Dorian's final horrified examination of the portrait after his failed attempt at goodness all confirm that the enchantment's logic cannot be outrun or undone.