Set in the opulent drawing rooms of eighteenth-century English society, Love & Friendship focuses on the machinations of a beautiful widow, Lady Susan Vernon, who, while waiting for social chatter about a personal indiscretion to pass, takes up temporary residence at her in-laws' estate. While there, the intelligent, flirtatious, and amusingly egotistical Lady Vernon is determined to be a matchmaker for her daughter Frederica - and herself too, naturally. She enlists the assistance of her old friend Alicia, but two particularly handsome suitors complicate her orchestrations.