In the town of Carlingford John Brown had been Mrs Thompson's attorney, though he had not been employed to write her will. Upon her death, her will leaves her property to an estranged daughter, unknown in Carlingford. To everyone's astonishment, if the daughter is not found within three years, the property is left to John Brown. Mrs Thompson's nearest relatives in Carlingford, the very poor Christian family, are not mentioned at all. This story depicts the impact of Mrs Thompson's will on several people, including John Brown, Mr and Mrs Christian, Bessie Christian, and her undeclared suitor Dr Rider. Finally John Brown does something which surprises even himself. The Executor is the first of seven works set in the delightful country town of Carlingford. Although each work can stand alone, one episode in this story does explain the beginning of the third work, The Doctor's Family.

The Rector opens as Carlingford awaits the arrival of their new rector. Will he be high church or low? And - for there are numerous unmarried ladies in Carlingford - will he be a bachelor? After fifteen years at All Souls, the Rector fancies himself immune to womanhood: he is yet to encounter the blue ribbons and dimples of Miss Lucy Wodehouse.

The Doctor's Family is the third of seven works set in the delightful country town of Carlingford. Although each work can stand alone, one episode in the first story, The Executor, does provide some background to this novel.

Salem Chapel tells the story of Arthur Vincent, recent graduate of Homerton College, Cambridge, who has been called to pastor Salem Chapel upon the retirement of its previous minister, Mr Tufton. Salem belongs to the Dissenters of Carlingford, to whom Oliphant attributes varying degrees of kindness, hospitality, generosity, commercial acumen, stubbornness, and complacency. Chapel life is naturally rooted in Carlingford's mercantile center, and the cheerful bustle of tea-meetings, singing classes, charitable and missionary activities echoes the hum of commerce. At the center of this "brisk succession of 'Chapel business'", stands the minister. He is, Oliphant declares, "everything in his little world. That respectable connection would not have hung together half so closely but for this perpetual subject of discussion, criticism, and patronage".

Unwilling to go against his principles, Frank Wentworth, the perpetual Curate of St. Rogue's, alienates Mr. Morgan, the new Rector, who will not recommend him for advancement

Returning home to tend her widowed father Dr. Marjoribanks, Lucilla soon launches herself into Carlingford society, aiming to raise the tone with her select Thursday evening parties. Optimistic, resourceful and blithely unimpeded by self-doubt, Lucilla is a superior being in every way, not least in relation to men.

Phoebe Beecham's father is the Dissenting minister of a large, wealthy London chapel. (Her mother, born Phoebe Tozer of Carlingford, was a character in an earlier Carlingford novel Salem Chapel). Phoebe "Junior" is well educated, and has been raised to have the manners of a lady. When she goes on a long visit to her shop-keeper grandparents in Carlingford (also characters from Salem Chapel), she expects she must adjust to their lower station in life. However, Phoebe finds a social circle which combines Anglican gentry (Ursula May and her brother Reverend Reginald May, whose father is the Perpetual Curate of St. Roque) with Dissenters (millionaire's son Clarence Copperhead and Non-Conformist minister Horace Northcote). These five young adults each have issues to deal with; and they find a new happiness in coming together. Phoebe, Junior is the last of seven works set in the delightful country town of Carlingford. Free download of all seven works in the series can be found here: Chronicles of Carlingford