Elinor Dashwood is sensible and reserved. Marianne is her romantically inclined and eagerly expressive younger sister. Youngest sister Margaret is developing her own romantic ideals. On the death of their father, the Dashwood sisters and their mother are sent in near poverty to a small cottage in Devonshire - despite the fact their brother and his wife have taken over the family fortune - where they adapt to their new circumstances with as much cheer as they can muster. Life brings both romance and heartbreak and neither love nor marriage comes easily; affections aren't always returned and social jockeying sometimes takes precedence over true love.