In which Lady Arabella sets herself resolutely against Dr Thorne and his family, determined to forbid her children from associating with them and to marshal her husband’s support against the perceived insult and social impropriety; meanwhile, Mary Thorne, sent to reside at Boxall Hill under Lady Scatcherd’s kindly but somewhat awkward care, finds herself navigating the peculiarities of her new situation with gentle fortitude. The unsettled relations and whispered suspicions that pervade the village of Greshamsbury cast a sombre shadow over the summer months, as the characters wrestle with conflicting loyalties and social expectations.