One plain sister holds a whole family together, flower by flower.
Who drives the story
The plain, bookish middle sister who wants a boy's education and gets a parish instead. She builds a church at Cocksmoor out of stubborn will and becomes the stem that holds the family chain together.
The eldest daughter, invalided by the carriage accident that killed her mother, who rules the household gently from her sofa. Her deathbed blessing hands Ethel the family's moral weight.
The widowed physician of Stoneborough, loving and fallible, who cannot cure his own daughter and loses his fortune to a bank failure. Grief and a second marriage to Mrs. Pugh soften his last years.
Ethel's partner in secret Greek, the brilliant son who wins an Oxford scholarship, wobbles into doubt and a doomed engagement to Miss Rivers, then recovers into ordination and marriage to Miss Cleveland.
The warm-hearted third son who chooses the navy over Oxford, sails the Pacific aboard the Alcestis, and returns a lieutenant with a sailor's simple faith and the novel's kindest tribute to Ethel.
The responsible eldest son, who starts Ethel on Cocksmoor, becomes a clergyman, takes a northern curacy, and returns to conduct the consecration of the church he helped begin.
The pretty, gentle younger sister who becomes Dr. May's favorite companion as Ethel's hands fill with work.
How they are connected
Her deathbed blessing hands Ethel the family's moral weight.
Ethel's partner in secret Greek, the brilliant son who wins an Oxford scholarship, wobbles into doubt and a doomed engagement to Miss Rivers, then recovers into ordination and marriage to Miss Cleveland.
The warm-hearted third son who chooses the navy over Oxford, sails the Pacific aboard the Alcestis, and returns a lieutenant with a sailor's simple faith and the novel's kindest tribute to Ethel.
The responsible eldest son, who starts Ethel on Cocksmoor, becomes a clergyman, takes a northern curacy, and returns to conduct the consecration of the church he helped begin.
May's favorite companion as Ethel's hands fill with work.
Go deeper
Thwarted ambition and its redirection · Duty as the shape of love · Faith tested by doubt and grief · The unseen heroism of ordinary women
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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