The young Godfrey Knight, the son of a puritanical parson, who lives in the Essex countryside. From childhood on, he and his neighbor, Isobel Blake, the daughter of a wealthy, boorish shipping magnate, have been strangely drawn to one another, although their natures are wholly dissimilar. Whereas Godfrey is a dreamer, Isobel is a hardheaded materialist. Despite their fathers' many attempts to keep them apart, the two do unite in matrimony, but unfortunately, their earthly happiness is a short-lived one. But, as the author makes abundantly clear, their reunion in the realm of the afterlife will surely be a glorious one...