When the young and beautiful Dorothea Brooke marries the aging scholar, Edward Casaubon, the people of Middlemarch believe that no good will come of it. Dorothea quickly grows unhappy and bored. Then she begins a sensitive friendship with Casaubon’s young cousin, Will Ladislaw. Meanwhile, the beautiful but spoilt Rosamond Vincey pursues the idealistic but poor Doctor Lydgate. Lydgate is determined not to get married, but Rosamond has other ideas…