The young Anne Russell regrets the break in her engagement with Captain Frederick Wentworth. She had hoped to be married, but her father and sister did not approve the match. In financial straits Anne's family move to more modest circumstances in Bath. When Anne and Wentworth meet again, it takes them some while to reconcile, but eventually they are reunited. In the course of the book Jane Austen explores social attitudes to marriage, romantic and family love, the power of social misunderstanding and the apparent role of fate in the desperate despair of unrequited love.
