In the rural community of Dillsborough the intertwined histories of the Morton family of Bragton, the Masters household, and the local hunting society are introduced, while Mary Masters quietly loves Reginald Morton but cannot bring herself to accept the persistent courtship of the prosperous young farmer Lawrence Twentyman merely because her family considers him a sensible husband, and when John Morton returns from diplomatic service with his fiancée Arabella Trefoil, her mother Lady Augustus, and the visiting American Senator Elias Gotobed the social balance of the neighborhood begins to change, as Gotobed questions fox hunting and landed privilege and takes an interest in the grievance of the poor farmer Goarly while Arabella, though engaged to John, continues calculating whether marriage might bring her greater wealth and position elsewhere, establishing the novel’s conflicts between affection and ambition, inherited custom and rational criticism, and English tradition and an American outsider’s judgment.
