Gilbert Markham is deeply intrigued by Helen Graham, a beautiful and secretive young woman who has moved into nearby Wildfell Hall with her young son. He is quick to offer Helen his friendship, but when her reclusive behaviour becomes the subject of local gossip and speculation, Gilbert begins to wonder whether his trust in her has been misplaced.
The youngest of the illustrious Bront iblings, Anne (1820-1849) wrote poetry and fiction throughout her childhood and went on to become a governess, religious lyric poet and novelist, publishing under the pseudonym Acton Bell. The realist and often ironic tone of her novels Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is strikingly different from the more romantic style of her sisters, Charlotte and Emily. Anne died of pulmonary tuberculosis a year after the publication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, at only twenty-nine years old.