Carpenter Adam Bede is in love with the beautiful Hetty Sorrel, but unknown to him, he has a rival in the local squires son Arthur Donnithorne. A tale of seduction, betrayal, love and deception, the plot of Adam Bede has the quality of an English folk song. Eliot brilliantly creates a sense of earthy reality, making the landscape itself as vital a presence in the novel as that of her characters.