This play set in the late 19th century is a skilful adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s short story "On The Western Circuit".
A chance meeting between Anna Dunsford, a servant girl, and Charles Bradford, a young, aspiring barrister, at the town fair leads to serious consequences for them and others.
A second meeting the next day results in the inevitable, unwanted expectation! Charles returns to London.
Anna, who thinks herself genuinely in love, can barely read and write, so asks Edith Harnham, her mistress, to carry on a correspondence with the young man on her behalf.
In writing the girl’s love letters and reading out his replies, Edith finds herself also falling in love vicariously.
Charles, unaware of the deception, proposes marriage to Anna when he hears that she is pregnant.
Only when it is too late does he discover the true identity of the writer of the letters that have so bewitched him - the person with whom he is really in love.
The play ends with the “unhappy” couple setting off for London, leaving Edith, whose own marriage is hardly blissful, desolate.