Life does not hold out much pleasure for either Elizabeth or Elinor: Elizabeth in love with a man of whom her overbearing mother does not approve, Elinor in love with the man Mrs Hartley is determined Elizabeth shall marry. Coincidentally with a social visit by the awesome Lady Charlotte, however, the prospects of both girls are made much brighter - through the machinations of the quiet Miss Jane, who is dismissed as "a person of no consequence" by Lady Charlotte when she is told her surname - Miss Austen.