Eight years ago, Anne Elliot broke off her engagement to the dashing young naval officer Frederick Wentworth. Though she loved him with all her heart, she followed the advice of Lady Russell, her only true friend, whose greater experience and wisdom she trusted. Lady Russell was as worried by Wentworth's self-confident manner as by his lack of any title, land, or money. Wentworth was crushed and embittered by Anne's rebuke. Anne was only crushed. Now twenty-seven and considered a faded beauty, she is resigned to a spinster's life. Then she learns that Wentworth, now a captain and wealthy with prize money from the Napoleonic Wars, has returned.

While Anne visits her married younger sister, Mary, Wentworth pays frequent calls on Mary's two charming sisters-in-law, and Anne must endure Mary's debates with her husband over which of the girls Wentworth should marry. Anne takes solace in the fact that only Wentworth and Lady Russell know that he courted her. She tries to avoid him. When she cannot, she is polite but formal, and he pays her little notice. She knows he has not forgiven her, and his presence is a constant reminder of what she has lost. Wentworth, meanwhile, may have ideas of his own.

Filled with Jane Austen's trademark wit and hilarious lampoons of the British upper class, Persuasion is both a delightful romantic comedy and an insightful exploration of our need to persuade, and be persuaded by, others.