Set in the Surrey area of southeast England and rich in local color, The Broom-Squire gives an account of an infant girl orphaned by a vicious murder. Baptized Mehetabel, she is reluctantly taken in by the Verstages, proprietors of a public-house called the Ship Inn, in exchange for a small stipend from the local parish. Suffice it then to say that Mehetabel grew up in the Ship Inn, almost as a child of the hostess and of her husband, with their son Iver as her playmate. Eighteen years later, Mehetabel has grown to be a beautiful and intelligent young woman whose presence imbues the Ship Inn with a breath of youth and cheerfulness. She catches the eye of Jonas Kirk, also known as the Broom-Squire because he is one of a settlement of squatters whose chief industry is broom-making. When the materialistic older man proposes marriage to Mehetabel, explaining he is in need of a housekeeper, she is initially horrified. However, Mrs. Verstage pressures her to accept on the basis of Mehetabel being “only a charity girl” with no other future ahead of her—though, secretly, she sees affection growing between Mehetabel and Iver and is determined to separate the two. Mehetabel soon finds herself caught between Iver and the Broom-Squire. What follows is a story of violence and manipulation that has been compared to George Eliot’s Silas Marner and Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D'Urbervilles.