Middlemarch follows the lives of residents in a fictional 19th century English town grappling with love, ambition, and societal constraints. Dorothea Brooke, a passionate young woman, makes a misguided marriage to a scholar for intellectual fulfillment, only to find disappointment. Similarly, idealistic doctor Tertius Lydgate finds his career and marriage thwarted by small-town politics and his own choices. The novel explores themes of idealism, realism, and the complexities of life in a provincial setting.