Emma is an independently wealthy woman who lives with her father in their home Hartfield in the English countryside near the village of Highbury. The novel concerns her attempts to be a matchmaker among her acquaintances and her own romantic misadventures.
Emma professes that she does not ever wish to marry (unless she falls very much in love),as she has no financial need to, having a large inheritance and she doesn't wish to leave her father alone. After series of new engagements, visits at Highbury and lots of miscommunication, Emma finds herself falling in love with her friend George Knightley.