Based on Jane Austen's novel, Persuasion is set in England in 1814. Eight years before the story begins, Anne Elliott (Amanda Root) was in love with, and engaged to, a young naval officer, Frederick Wentworth (Ciarán Hinds), but she allowed herself to be persuaded by her trusted friend Lady Russell (Susan Fleetwood) to break off the engagement due to Wentworth's lack of position or fortune. Wentworth, now a rich and successful captain, returns to find Anne's family on the brink of financial ruin and his own family tenants in her home. She watches disconsolately as Wentworth courts her brother-in-law's sister, Louisa (Emma Roberts). An accident, however, brings Wentworth to his senses, and he follows Anne to Bath-only to find her cousin William, a young man with good prospects, also pursuing her.