Christina, a young orphan who is sent to live with her uncle because she is an heiress and he needs her money to continue the lifestyle he is accustomed to living. The story progresses as Christina grows up, learning to both love Flambards, the ancestral home, and yet despise the backward-thinking ways of her uncle and his eldest son, Mark. It tells of the rivalry between Mark (the favorite) and William (the second son) not only for their father’s love but for Christina’s as well. It illustrates how life was changing in England at the time (just before WWI), and the hope that those changes brought to many who felt restricted by hide-bound Victorian (& Edwardian) rules.