We perform a systematic study of Gushel-Mukai varieties-quadratic sections of linear sections of cones over the Grassmannian Gr(2, 5). This class of varieties includes Clifford general curves of genus 6, Brill-Noether general polarized K3 surfaces of genus 6, prime Fano threefolds of genus 6, and their higher-dimensional analogues.We establish an intrinsic characterization of normal Gushel-Mukai varieties in terms of their excess conormal sheaves, which leads to a new proof of the classification theorem of Gushel and Mukai. We give a description of isomorphism classes of Gushel-Mukai varieties and their automorphism groups in terms of linear-algebraic data naturally associated with these varieties.We carefully develop the relation between Gushel-Mukai varieties and EisenbudPopescu-Walter (EPW) sextics introduced earlier by Iliev-Manivel and O'Grady. We describe explicitly all Gushel-Mukai varieties whose associated EPW sextics are isomorphic or dual (we call them period partners or dual varieties, respectively). Finally, we show that in dimension 3 and higher, period partners or dual varieties are always birationally isomorphic.