When the novel opened, Margaret Hale was preparing for her cousin Edith’s wedding to Captain Lennox. Following the celebration she returned to the village of Helstone where her father was vicar. She had spent the past ten years living with her aunt and cousin and was now looking forward to the idyllic life of Helstone with her parents. This quiet genteel life in Southern England was shattered by an unexpected and unwanted proposal from Edith’s brother-in-law, Henry Lennox,