Twenty year old Elizabeth Bennet, is the second eldest of the five daughters of a relatively poor country gentleman in the fictional estate of Longbourn, Hertfordshire, England. Her father's estate is entailed to Mr. Collins, the closest male relative, meaning that upon Mr Bennet's death, she and her mother and sisters will be turned out of their house and left to fend for themselves, something which obsesses her mother. Elizabeth's older sister, Jane, is sweet-tempered and intelligent, but her three younger sisters are relatively uneducated; the two youngest being obsessed with clothes and flirting with a camp of officers stationed in a nearby village.

As the novel opens, Mr. Bingley, a wealthy young gentleman, rents a country estate near to the Bennets, accompanied by his two fashionable sisters and his good friend, the fabulously rich Mr. Darcy. Whereas Bingley is well-liked in the community, Darcy begins his acquaintance with Elizabeth, her family, and their neighbours with smug condescension and proud distaste for all of the country people. Despite Mrs. Bennet's embarrassing interference and the opposition of his sisters, who believe Jane to be socially inferior, Mr. Bingley and Jane begin to grow closer. Elizabeth, amused but rather stung by Darcy's haughty rejection of her at a local dance, makes it a point to match his coldness with her own wit.

At the same time, Elizabeth begins a friendship with Mr. Wickham, a charming officer who relates a prior acquaintance with Darcy. Upon hearing Wickham tell his story of his apparent misfortune at the hands of Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth immediately seizes upon it as another, more concrete reason to hate Mr. Darcy. Unbeknownst to her, Darcy finds himself gradually drawn to Elizabeth.....