Lady Lovel, Josephine, spends many years fighting to prove that her marriage to the late Earl Lovel was lawful and that her daughter Anna is therefore the legitimate heiress, while the tailor Thomas Thwaite and his son Daniel remain the loyal friends who support mother and daughter through poverty and litigation, and as the dispute over the title and enormous inheritance begins to turn in their favor the Solicitor-General proposes resolving the conflict by arranging a marriage between Anna and the young Earl Lovel, a solution eagerly supported by Anna’s mother, yet Anna has already promised herself to Daniel, who loved and defended her during the years of hardship, and although she does not dislike the young Earl after meeting him she feels unable to betray her earlier pledge, while Daniel gives her the freedom to choose and discovers that she still intends to remain faithful to him.
