Lady Venetia Fleetwood is expected to marry ‘Beauty’ Winchmore, but she ends the engagement when he insists that marriage must end her medical studies. Her refusal scandalises society, and after her father’s death she is left with a small allowance and exclusion from her family. She continues the cause of qualifying as a doctor despite institutional hostility and personal cost.
At Morland Place, George’s extravagant wife consumes the estate’s resources during a severe agricultural depression. His sister Henrietta discovers that her marriage to Reverend Fortescue is an empty performance and falls in love with a neighbouring squire. The novel links women’s struggle for professional autonomy with the economic decline of the landed estate, exposing the sacrifices demanded by both convention and rebellion.
