 Lawyer Wakem takes away the mill on the river Floss from Edward Tulliver, whose ancestors owned it for 300 years, and becomes the worst enemy of Tulliver s family. When Edward s daughter, Maggie, grows up, she falls in love with Wakem s son Philip, but her brother Tom, true to the memory of their father, forbids her to meet him again. When she visits her cousin, Lucy Deane, Lucy s fiance Stephen Guest falls in love with Maggie at first sight, further complicating matters.