Grand Sophy

Sir Horace Stanton-Lacy must leave for business in Brazil and it becomes necessary for him to leave his daughter Sophy in the care of her sister, Lady Elizabeth Ombersley. She lives in London with her husband, Lord Ombersley, and their children Charles, Cecilia, Hubert, and five other younger children.

Charles, having inherited a title and a large fortune from a distant great-uncle, in fact rules in the household over everything with great severity, partly because he is burdened by the heavy gambling debts incurred by his father. He is engaged to Miss Eugenia Wraxton, a maiden from a good family who is very strict about social conventions and education.

Neither of them sees eye to eye with the arrival of Sophy, a girl who immediately proves to be very lovable, but far too lively and accustomed by an absentee and unconcerned father to doing what he wants in defiance of convention. Sophy is also a clever girl and sees at once the things that are wrong in her aunt and uncle's house: Charles and Eugenia are engaged, though they do not love each other, because they apparently share their respectability; Hubert is the victim of a loan shark because he has incurred gambling debts and does not dare to talk to his older brother about it; Cecilia, initially betrothed to Lord Charlbury, has fallen in love with Augustus Fawnhope, a young man of good family, but lacking in substance and income, and who certainly does not meet with favor in the Ombersley family.

With wisdom, stratagems, and a few lies here and there, Sophy will succeed in rescuing Hubert from moneylenders, reuniting Cecilia with Lord Charlbury, and saving Charles from marriage to the empty Eugenia; and, though not planned, she will also find a suitable husband for herself.