the novel follows four characters' rural lives in the fictional community of hayslope—a rural, pastoral, and close-knit community in 1799. the novel revolves around a love "rectangle" among the beautiful but self-absorbed hetty sorrel; captain arthur donnithorne, the young squire who seduces her; adam bede, her unacknowledged suitor; and dinah morris, hetty's cousin, a fervent, virtuous and beautiful methodist lay preacher.