1845. The Barretts, consisting of well-off widowed patriarch Edward Moulton-Barrett, a business owner, and his nine young adult offspring, live on Wimpole Street in London. Puritanical and tyrannical Edward lords over his family, they who are not allowed to disobey him, he threatening to banish them from the house and his life forever with only the clothes on their back if they do so. Among his directives is that none are allowed to date or marry in their devotion to him and the family. This item outwardly affects youngest daughter Henrietta the most as she has fallen secretly in love with Captain Surtees Cook. But the one most affected by him and his directives overall is oldest favored offspring, acclaimed published poet Elizabeth, as she is physically infirmed from not having fully recovered from rheumatic fever, and thus has been confined to her bedroom for the past five years in her frailty. The only joys in her life are the times with her siblings and trusted servants, most specifically Wilson, times with the occasional caller allowed into the house, times with her faithful spaniel Flush, and the recent correspondence with fellow poet and mutual fan Robert Browning, who she has never met. All nine justify their father's ways in that he is doing it all in his love for them. The evolution of Elizabeth's relationship with their father not only is in watching as a bystander how her siblings' lives are affected, but in her improving health, meeting Browning in the flesh, he with who she falls mutually in love, and learning directly why their father is the way he is.
—Huggo