The novel opens with Agnes Fitzhenry, a repentant 'fallen woman', returning to her father's house with her illegitimate son, Edward.
It turns out that Agnes's father was driven mad from the shock of her elopement with a libertine (Clifford), and her supposed death.
Agnes stays in order to nurse her father, and ultimately earns the respect of many (although not all) in the local community.
Although he does not repent his mistreatment of Agnes, he decides to take Edward away in order to make the boy his heir.
[1] Thomas Robinson suggested that Opie was seeking to develop a middle ground between the sexual politics of William Godwin (who vehemently opposed the institution of marriage) and Hannah More (who supported it).