In the fourth of the Barsetshire Chronicles, the values of a Victorian gentleman, the young clergyman Mark Robarts, are put to the test.
Through a combination of naivety and social ambition, Robarts is compromised and brought to the brink of ruin.
Trollope tells his story with great compassion, offsetting the drama with his customary humour. Like all the Barsetshire novels, it is an extraordinarily evocative picture of everyday life in 19th-century England.