Sir Hugo wishes Daniel to go into politics, but Daniel, a bright and kindly young man isn't sure what he wants to do with his life. Daniel is widely suspected to be Sir Hugo's son, but no one, including Daniel, is sure of this. Fleeing town, she meets Daniel, the charge of another very wealthy gentleman, the Englishman Sir Hugo Mallinger. Henleigh is a laconic and unfriendly man, but because of his great fortune, Gwendolen considers his advances – until she learns of his mistress and illegitimate children (from his mistress, Lydia, herself). In her new neighborhood, she meets Henleigh Mallinger Grandcourt, who quickly proposes to her. In the wake of her stepfather's death, Gwendolen's family relocates. A servant delivers her recently sold necklace back to her, and Gwendolen understands that Daniel saw her pawn it and repurchased it for her. She pawns a necklace, considering using the money to gamble further, in the hope of remaking her fortune and saving her family. Gwendolen finds out, the night after losing her personal savings in a game of roulette, that her family is financially ruined. Daniel is both attracted and repulsed by Gwendolyn Harleth, a beautiful young woman with a gambling problem. The novel begins in the fictional town of Leubronn, Germany.

A novel by celebrated Victorian writer George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), Daniel Deronda (1876) follows the intertwined stories of Daniel Deronda, the compassionate charge of a wealthy gentleman who withholds from him his true identity, and the beautiful and ambitious, but self-centered Gwendolen Harleth.

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