Set during the political upheavals of 19th Century England, Middlemarch is an epic story of love, politics, and passion. The novel follows lives of the ambitious young Doctor Lydgate as he takes up his position at Middlemarch's new hospital, and Dorothea Brooke who desperately wants to make something of her life; however, as a woman she is forbidden the study of Greek and Latin and no one takes her notions of societal improvement seriously.