<p>The story opens in the country parsonage of Dr. Primrose a kindly man who has a good heart a good family and a good income. Suddenly his idyllic life is cruelly devastated by a series of misfortunes and he ends up in prison. Yet despite all this calamity and injustice the vicar never loses sight of Christian morality a conviction which lends him genuine nobility and in the end also brings justice and the restoration of his family and fortune.</p> <p>Through this simple almost fairy-tale plot Goldsmith gives us a charming comedy. It is not a novel of sentiment but an artful send-up of many of the familiar literary conventions of his day: the pastoral scene the artificial romance the unquestioning stoic bravery of the hero—all culminating in a gloriously improbable dénouement.</p>