The indubitable Fanny Price, wise and sensitive, goes to live with her wealthy cousins at Mansfield Park, where her stabilising influence is to be severely tested by the arrival of the glamorous Crawfords.

As the young people decide to put on a play, love intrigues are acted out against a jostling of moral codes, with Fanny proving to be passionate and intriguing and equal to the best of Jane Austen's other heroines.