Bertha Ley comes of age, inherits her father`s money & promptly marries a handsome, calm & unimaginative man. Bertha is wildly in love with Edward & believes she can be happy playing the role of a dutiful wife in their country home. But, intelligent & sensual, she quickly becomes bored by her oppressively conventional life, & finds her love for her husband slipping away. Originally rejected by publishers, Mrs Craddock was first published only on condition that certain `shocking` passages were removed. It was thirty years before the full text could be published.