Wrongly accused of theft and exiled by community of Lantern Yard, Silas Marner settles in the village of Raveloe, living as a recluse and caring only for work and money.

Bitter and unhappy, Silas' circumstances change when an orphaned child, actually the unaknowledged child of Godfrey Cass, eldest son of the local squire, is left in his care.