The main character of the novel, Anne Elliot, is a 27-year-old 'spinster' who is intelligent and warm. Her father, Sir Walter Elliot, is a very vain man who, though a baronet, holder of a hereditary title, finds himself in dire financial straits and in risk of losing their home, Kellynch Hall. Anne has an older sister, Elizabeth, who is silly and also unmarried. Their anxious younger sister, Mary, is married to Charles Musgrove of Uppercross Hall, the son of a local squire, or village leader.
