Four girls each with their own 'take' on 18th century social restrictions conditioning life in a village with an ailing, widowed father: Emma, arrived back into the family after being brought up by an aunt in a rather more social, sophisticated atmosphere; Elizabeth, facing the burden of running a household and caring for an ailing father after a failed romance; dotty Margaret the youngest; selfish Penelope 'escaped' to friends in London. Their two brothers, one married into money, one struggling to make a living as a doctor, know they have a responsibility for the girls' futures.
And then there's the young unmarried Vicar, and the Castle family - widowed dowager, young Lord, his sister and wayward brother, and hangers on - whose lives intertwine with the Watsons. And the village gossips who play their part in the dramas that unfold after a dramatic event has long reaching results.