Margaret Mackenzie has spent most of her adult life nursing first her dying father and then her invalid brother Walter, when she inherits a significant fortune from Walter at his death. Unused to mingling in society, she knows she should find her place in it and moves to a town called Littlebath where she joins a group of Evangelicals centred around the popular local pastor Mr. Stumfold and his wife and before long finds herself with 3 suitors.