[1] Although Edgeworth is known for having her novels (Castle Rackrent, The Absentee) address issues of nationalism in an Anglo-Irish context, Leonora instead privileges English manners over French ones.

The plot of the novel centres on the newly married Leonora and her decision to bring back to England a woman who had been exiled to France.

The woman, Olivia, is known as a "coquette," and her controversial behaviour with regard to her marriage had driven her to France, where she cultivated an aristocratic, "French" sensibility that exists apart from conventional morality.

By having the main characters tell the story through their own perspectives, the reader gets to read full articulations of competing sensibilities and philosophies, although the narrative clearly prefers Leonora's prudent reserve over Olivia's extravagant emotional displays.

Indeed, this novel can be read as a critique of sensibility, a behavioural phenomenon that tries to correlate a person's emotional sensitivity with her elevated moral sentiments.