The Mill on the Floss

Maggie Tulliver grows up at Dorlcote Mill on the river Floss, a clever, passionate girl adored and often scolded by her practical older brother Tom. Their father, a proud and stubborn miller, sinks the family into a ruinous lawsuit over the water rights that power the mill, and when he loses, the Tullivers are stripped of their property and their standing. Tom leaves school to work off the family debt and grows rigid and unforgiving, while Maggie, denied the education and freedom her mind craves, drifts toward a forbidden attachment that scandalizes the town. Torn between her love for her brother, her hunger for a fuller life, and the narrow rules of her community, Maggie moves toward a reckoning that the swelling river will finally decide.