A young widow calling herself Mrs. Graham moves into the long-abandoned Wildfell Hall with her small son Arthur.

Gilbert first meets Mrs. Graham up close when he rescues her young son, who has fallen from Wildfell's garden wall.

During a group seaside excursion, Gilbert realizes he has fallen deeply in love with Mrs. Graham.

Gilbert spots Helen and Frederick Lawrence in an intimate embrace and wrongly concludes they are having a love affair.

Overcome by jealousy, Gilbert strikes Frederick Lawrence from his horse with a riding whip and rides away.

Helen gives Gilbert her private journal to read, asking him to keep its contents completely secret from everyone.

Helen's journal describes how she fell in love with the handsome, witty Arthur Huntingdon at a London ball.

Helen marries Arthur Huntingdon against her aunt's warnings, convinced she can reform him through her moral influence.

Helen discovers that her husband has been conducting an affair with Lady Lowborough, a friend's wife and houseguest.

Helen confronts Huntingdon and Lady Lowborough, who show no remorse, and declares she will be a wife in name only.

Huntingdon discovers Helen's escape plan in her journal, then destroys her paintings and confiscates her money and jewels.

Helen flees Grassdale Manor at dawn with her young son and loyal servant Rachel, taking refuge at Wildfell Hall.

After reading Helen's journal, Gilbert visits Wildfell to reconcile; Helen asks that they may write to each other after she leaves.

Helen returns to Grassdale to nurse the gravely ill Huntingdon; he refuses to repent and dies in anguish.

Gilbert finds Helen at Staningley; she offers him a rose as an emblem of her heart and they plan to marry.

Gilbert Markham, a young gentleman farmer, becomes fascinated by the mysterious Mrs. Graham when she arrives at the desolate Wildfell Hall, and their guarded early meetings slowly give way to genuine feeling. Jealousy blinds Gilbert when he misinterprets a scene between Helen and Frederick Lawrence, and it is only when Helen gives him her private journal that he begins to understand her true situation. The journal reveals Helen's ill-fated marriage to the charming but dissolute Arthur Huntingdon, whose infidelity and cruelty progressively destroy her love and force her to plan an escape. Huntingdon discovers her plans and foils them brutally, but Helen ultimately flees with her son to Wildfell Hall, where she hides under a false name and supports herself through painting. After reconciling with Gilbert, Helen is called back to nurse Huntingdon through his final illness, during which he dies without repenting, freeing her from her marriage at last. With her circumstances transformed, Gilbert finds Helen at Staningley and they declare their mutual love, paving the way for a companionate marriage built on trust and shared values.

The central love story and Helen's escape from an abusive marriage.

Gilbert's family and neighbors gossip constantly about the reclusive Mrs. Graham's origins and her mysterious reasons for settling at Wildfell.

Gilbert's mother warns him that Eliza Millward, despite her flirtatious charm, is artful and not a suitable match for him.

Rose and Gilbert visit Wildfell Hall and discover that Mrs. Graham sells her paintings in London to support herself and her son.

Gilbert brings Mrs. Graham a copy of Marmion as a gift; she insists on paying for it, leaving him hurt.

Aunt Maxwell warns Helen that Huntingdon is a known profligate without moral principle, but Helen refuses to heed her.

Millicent Hargrave writes to Helen that her mother has overruled her refusal of Hattersley's marriage proposal, leaving her unhappily betrothed.

Helen gives birth to a son and vows to shield the boy from his father's vices and corrupting influence.

Huntingdon hosts a rowdy house party at Grassdale where a drunken Hattersley violently attacks his wife Millicent in the drawing room.

Lord Lowborough confronts Helen after learning his wife Annabella has been conducting an affair with Huntingdon under his own roof.

Walter Hargrave corners Helen and tries to force his advances on her; she holds him off with a palette knife.

Helen secretly feeds young Arthur wine when he is ill, hoping to make the boy permanently associate alcohol with sickness.

Hattersley visits Helen at Wildfell Hall and declares his firm intention to reform and devote himself to his wife and family.

Gilbert apologizes to Frederick Lawrence for the riding-whip attack and learns, to his astonishment, that Lawrence is Helen's brother.

Gilbert warns Frederick Lawrence that Jane Wilson is cold-hearted and calculating, and Lawrence ends his attentions toward her.

Gilbert rushes to stop what he fears is Helen's remarriage, only to find that Frederick Lawrence has secretly married Esther Hargrave.

From the moment Mrs. Graham arrives at Wildfell Hall, the neighborhood gossips relentlessly about her origins, while Gilbert navigates a shallow flirtation with Eliza Millward and discovers that Helen secretly supports herself through painting. In her journal, Helen's aunt fails to warn her away from Huntingdon, and the fates of women around Helen — Millicent Hargrave forced into an unwanted marriage, Lady Lowborough caught in adultery — illustrate the dangers women face without means of protecting themselves. Helen's journal traces the worsening of Huntingdon's behavior through his rowdy house parties, culminating in Hattersley's drunken violence against Millicent and Lord Lowborough's devastated discovery of his wife's infidelity. Helen's growing desperation is shown through her secret effort to inoculate her son against alcohol and Hargrave's violent advance, while Hattersley's unexpected decision to reform offers a rare example of a man choosing to become better for his family's sake. Back in the present, Gilbert makes amends with Frederick Lawrence and is astonished to learn he is Helen's brother, then acts to spare Lawrence from the cold-hearted Jane Wilson. The pool closes with the surprise of Frederick Lawrence's secret marriage to Esther Hargrave, the one young woman who successfully resisted her mother's pressure to make a loveless match.

The supporting characters and key moments that shape the edges of the story.

Helen debates child-rearing with Mrs. Markham, arguing boldly that girls should be taught self-reliance rather than sheltered in ignorance.

Reverend Millward visits Helen to formally chastise her conduct and pressures the Markhams to stop associating with her.

Helen confesses her love to Huntingdon; her aunt catches them embracing and Huntingdon quickly claims he was proposing marriage.

Helen is troubled to learn that Huntingdon has been cruelly mocking Lord Lowborough's struggles to overcome his addictions.

Helen realizes early in her marriage that she and Huntingdon share no real interests and have nothing meaningful to discuss.

After Huntingdon boasts shamelessly of a past affair, Helen locks her bedroom door against him for the first time.

Annabella taunts Helen that she has succeeded in curbing Huntingdon's drinking where Helen, his own wife, has entirely failed.

Helen secretly begins painting intensively to earn enough money to escape Huntingdon and support herself and her son independently.

Helen takes her mother's maiden name Graham and conceals her destination from her husband as she makes final preparations to flee.

Gilbert finishes reading Helen's journal and, overcome with remorse for having doubted her, resolves to visit Wildfell and apologize.

Helen insists she and Gilbert must separate at once so he can be free to forget her and find another wife.

Eliza Millward gleefully informs Gilbert that Mrs. Graham has abandoned Wildfell Hall and returned to nurse her ailing husband.

Helen makes Huntingdon sign a document granting her legal custody of young Arthur as a condition of her agreeing to nurse him.

Helen's uncle dies and leaves her the grand estate of Staningley, dramatically transforming her social and financial position.

Gilbert stands paralyzed outside Staningley's gates, convinced the now-wealthy Helen is too far above him in station to choose him.

The novel's key turning points begin with Helen's passionate argument that girls should be educated about the world rather than sheltered from it — a lesson forged from her own bitter experience. In her journal, Helen's disillusionment unfolds through a sequence of revelations: Huntingdon's cruelty toward Lowborough, the couple's profound incompatibility, and Helen's first act of defiance in locking her bedroom door against her husband. The middle section tracks Helen's shift from endurance to resistance — Annabella's taunt that Helen has failed to moderate her own husband galvanizes Helen to begin painting for income, and her adoption of a new identity marks her final break from her old life. Back in the present, Gilbert's emotional arc mirrors Helen's own struggle: finishing the journal fills him with remorse and resolve, but the reunion at Wildfell is quickly followed by Helen's painful insistence that they must part for good. Eliza's gleeful news that Helen has returned to nurse her husband forces Gilbert into months of anxious uncertainty, during which Helen secures legal custody of her son and loses both Huntingdon and her uncle in quick succession. The pool ends with Gilbert immobilized at the gates of Staningley, his pride the last obstacle standing between him and the woman he loves.