Mark Robarts, an easy-going young vicar, is given the living of Framley by his old school friend Lord Lufton. He foolishly signs two notes of guarantee for the unscrupulous MP Nate Sowerby for a considerable sum of money. Sowerby makes little or no attempt to pay this note, leaving Mark facing scandal and ruin. Mark's sister Lucy comes to live at Framley parsonage and Lord Lufton soon falls in love with her, much to the displeasure of his mother. Lady Lufton has other plans for her son, specifically Griselda Grantly, daughter of the Archdeacon. Lord Lufton spurns such manipulations, and instead proposes to Lucy. Mindful of Lady Lufton's feelings, and knowing through common sense and her own keen intelligence that her displeasure is almost insurmountable, Lucy turns her suitor down, declaring that she cannot marry him unless Lady Lufton herself sanctions the union. It is only through Lucy's selfless and tender ministrations to Mrs. Josiah Crawley, wife of the penurious "perpetual curate of Hogglestock", that Lady Lufton begins to perceive—through the thick veil of habitual snobbery that she wears—the real merit of Lucy's character. It is she who asks Lucy to accept her son's offer. Mark Robarts, meanwhile, as a result of his foolishness, finds the bailiffs breathing down his neck, and it is left to Lord Lufton to step in and save his friend—and his future brother in law—from scandal and disgrace.
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