When Mr. Tryan arrives in Milby, with his disturbingly evangelical and puritan tendencies, the small town is deeply divided in a bitter fight over the suitability of his evening lectures. The proud but desolate Janet Dempster, alcoholic wife of one of Mr. Tryan’s most vociferous opponents, delights in the clergyman’s persecution—until she unexpectedly finds her own redemption. Written when she was on the brink of her career as a novelist, Janet's Repentance foreshadows the themes of Eliot’s later work.