The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England.

Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of country gentleman living near the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, near London.

The story begins as the people of rural Meryton scurry to marry their daughters off to Charles Bingley, a dashing and eligible bachelor who has taken an estate near the Bennets.

At the village's welcoming ball, Elizabeth meets up with a formidable adversary: Bingley's closest friend, the cold, prideful, extremely wealthy Fitzwilliam Darcy, who piques her to new heights of antagonism.

When Darcy arrogantly urges Bingley to give up his burgeoning courtship of Elizabeth's sister, misunderstanding threatens to bury all he loves in turmoil and regret.....