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The death of Mr. Henry Dashwood’s uncle opens the novel. Upon the uncle’s death, Norland estate is inherited by Henry Dashwood, on the condition it should next pass to his son John, and John’s young son, and not to his three daughters Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret.

John Dashwood is wealthy, but at Mr. Dashwood’s death, the Dashwood women are left with only a small pittance to live on. On his deathbed, Mr. Dashwood made his son promise to provide for his stepmother and half sisters, but John is easily persuaded by his selfish wife Fanny that they should use the money for their “real” family, namely their son.

John and his family move into Norland estate, pretty much making them feel in the way and unwanted. He does not fulfil his father’s dying request, and lets the women fend pretty much for themselves.

Feeling like guests in what had been their home, the four Dashwood women seek a new house on their limited budget. In the interim, the family is visited by Edward Ferrars, Fanny’s brother.

He and Elinor get along well, and close young Dashwoods think it romantic and hope they will marry. However, by all accounts, Mrs. Ferrars is as bad as Fanny, and Edward seems to be holding back for some reason. They think it may have to do with him not yet having taking religious orders, so that he is not at present able to support a wife, no matter how much in love they might be.

Their budding courtship is interrupted by a telegram from a distant relative of their mother’s, telling of a cottage they may rent in Southwestern England. With mixed feelings, the Dashwoods leave their home and travel to Barton Cottage.

They arrive to meet the owners of Barton Park, Sir John Middleton and his wife Lady Middleton. They also meet Mrs. Jennings, Lady Middleton’s mother. She likes the girls very much, as does Colonel Brandon, an older friend of the Middleton’s who takes a liking to Marianne.

Colonel Brandon seems to be the kindest of men, but despite his obvious interest in her, Marianne thinks the Colonel is too old for romance. She prefers the dashing young Willoughby, who assists her after she falls down a hill and injures her ankle.

After carrying her home, the two meet often and discuss their many mutual interests. She is the sensibility part of the title, emotional, sensitive, while her sister is rational and to all outward appearances, unruffled by adversity. However, Elinor does feel things keenly, she just doesn’t emote all over the place like Marianne. She and Willoughby are die-hard romantics, and sit around reading poetry all day while Elinor struggles to help her mother make ends meet.

Marianne and Willoughby seem to be very much in love, and a perfect match, begin to suspect they will be a match, until one day Willoughby suddenly leaves Devonshire for London, upsetting everyone, Marianne most of all.

Soon after Willoughby’s departure, Edward Ferrars makes a belated visit to the Cottage. He seems distant, and Elinor fears he may no longer have feelings for her.

After he leaves, the Dashwoods receive two new guests, the Palmers. When the Palmers leave, they are replaced by two young ladies, Ann and Lucy Steele. Sir John tells the Miss Steeles that Elinor is attached to Mr. Ferrars.

When Lucy Steele asks Elinor for her confidence, Lucy reveals that she is attached to Edward Ferrars. Elinor conceals her own connection while Lucy tells her about their secret four-year engagement.

Mrs. Jennings invites Elinor and Marianne to her London home. Upon arriving in London, Marianne immediately writes Willoughby, but her letters go unanswered. Elinor becomes increasingly suspicious of their supposed engagement. When they encounter Willoughby at a party, he is cold and formal, and accompanied by another woman.

Marianne writes to Willoughby the next day, and soon receives a letter from him. In it, he denies any feelings for her, apologizes for any confusion, and tells her he is engaged to another woman. This woman, they learn, has a large fortune.

Marianne admits there was no formal engagement, but her love for Willoughby is clear. Marianne falls into a terrible emotional and physical sickness, literally pining away for love.

Colonel Brandon reveals to Elinor how Willoughby seduced the Colonel’s young foster daughter Eliza Williams, leaving her alone, penniless, and pregnant. When Elinor repeats this story to Marianne, Willoughby’s poor character is cemented in her mind.

Soon after they hear of Willoughby’s marriage to his heiress, the two Miss Steele’s arrive. John and Fanny Dashwood are also in town.

John tells Elinor that Edward Ferrars is likely to be married soon, to a woman with a large fortune. When Elinor next sees Lucy, it is in the presence of Mrs. Ferrars, Edward’s mother. Mrs. Ferrars, suspecting no connection between Edward and Lucy, treats Lucy wonderfully, while she coolly ignores Elinor, no doubt at the instigation of Fanny, and her being looked down on as not having enough money, not being a good enough match, even though John Dashwood could have fixed that if he and Fanny had been more kind.

Mrs. Jennings has some startling news to tell Elinor. Fanny has learned of Lucy and Edward’s long-standing engagement. Feeling angry and betrayed, Fanny threw the Miss Steeles out of her house.

They learn from John Dashwood that Mrs. Ferrars asked Edward to end the engagement, and when he would not, she disinherited him, leaving him nearly broke, with only the possibility of being ordained and getting a living standing in the way of starvation.

While walking in the park, Elinor runs into Ann Steele. She tells Elinor that Edward offered to end the engagement now that he is no longer his mother’s heir, but that Lucy claims she loved him so much that she wanted it to continue.

Edward continues to work to be ordained, while his younger brother becomes heir.

The next day, Elinor receives a letter from Lucy, telling her what has happened, and that though she urged Edward to end the engagement for his own sake, so that his mother would reinstate him, he would not hear of it. Elinor is miserable at what appears to be the unwavering love of the couple, and certainly Edward’s insistence that he do the right thing and keep his word no matter what.

Elinor and Marianne plan to return to Barton Cottage, but they visit a few weeks at the Palmers’ house in Cleveland first. Before leaving, Colonel Brandon tells Elinor of a parsonage on his estate that Edward could manage. With this prospect of income at last, Edward’s and Lucy’s marriage seems a forgone conclusion. Elinor is glad for the couple, but miserable herself.

But soon she has a greater worry, for shortly after arriving at Cleveland, Marianne catches a violent cold. She has been pining for love, starving herself, and becomes feverish and delirious.

Elinor sends Colonel Brandon to fetch her mother while she calls the doctor, and many anxious moments ensue. Willoughby arrives, having heard how ill she was, and anxious to explain himself even though it is too late.

He tells Elinor he did and still does love Marianne, and was going to ask her to marry him, when his benefactress became informed of his behavior towards Colonel Brandon’s foster daughter. He was dismissed, and to keep his wealthy lifestyle, he had to marry well, which he did, to Miss Gray.

He got the money he wanted, but he deeply regrets the way he’s acted, and how he lost the only woman he ever loved as a result. He admits to Elinor that the cruel final letter written to Marianne was actually written by his wife.

He despises himself for his stupidity, and asks Elinor to tell Marianne one day, if she ever thinks she will be well enough to hear the truth. He goes away a bitter, miserable man. Once again, John and Fanny’s selfish actions ruined the Dashwood sisters’ chances.

Mrs. Dashwood arrives with Colonel Brandon, who went to fetch her, fearing Marianne would die. During the journey, the Colonel revealed to her his love for Marianne, and Mrs. Dashwood hopes to have them married.

When Marianne is well enough, the three return to Barton. Several days after their arrival, they learn of the marriage of “Mr. Ferrars to Lucy Steele.”

Elinor is crushed. All her hopes are now gone, and with her standing in society, she feels she is doomed to being an old maid.

The next day, Edward arrives at Barton. When Elinor inquires about Mrs. Ferrars, not his mother, but his wife, he tells her that it was his brother, not he, who wed Lucy Steele.

They are all stunned at the news—Lucy never loved Edward, she had been scheming all along to get the Ferrars’ money. When Edward was disowned she latched onto his brother instead.

Edward ask for forgiveness in trying to do the honorable thing even though he knew he no longer loved Lucy Steele.

He asks Elinor to marry him, and she agrees. Edward attempts to reconcile with his mother, and she gives them a little money. The two are now able to marry, and take up residence at the Colonel’s parsonage.

In the meantime, Marianne has grown to see the error of her ways, and that sense and sensibility are not opposites, but must be finely balanced. She did love Willoughby, but she was in love with the idea of being in love even more.

Colonel Brandon undertakes to improve her reading so she is not constantly indulging in romances, and the more she gets to know him, the more they fall in love. Theirs is a marriage of true friendship and regard, just as Elinor and Edward are well-matched.

Elinor gives her Willoughby’s message at last, and all becomes clear. They would never have been happy, it had been passionate while it lasted but she could never have loved a man she had no respect for.

Marianne is happy to marry to Colonel Brandon. His unfailing kindness and compassion to everyone, including the ward Willoughby ruined, and Eliza’s daughter, show he is a man who can be trust and who possesses the utmost integrity and decency. They are married, and live happily ever after only moments away from Edward and Elinor, and all their new-found friends, who prove far kinder than their own half-brother ever was.

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