In which a middle-aged schoolmaster, once a dreamer of academic greatness, quietly tends to his affection for a young lady from afar while grappling with realities that unbidden intervene upon his scholarly pursuits. Meanwhile, two younger souls, bound by ties both familial and tender, confront the delicate truths of their past and present in the sober confines of a fading market-house, where affection and circumstance lay bare the complexities of their hearts.