The story revolves around nineteen-year-old Paul Manning, who moves to the countryside to work in a town near his mother's family's Hope Farm, where he meets his second cousin, Phyllis Holman, the beautiful and beloved, two years his junior, and who seems confused by her difficult position on the brink of adolescence. Although her world is limited and narrow, she is as broad-minded and eager to learn as her father. Most critics have acknowledged that "Cousin Phyllis" is Elizabeth Gaskell's crowning achievement in the field of short fiction. It is a simple and uncomplicated novel, but its positives lie in its narrative form and plot. "Cousin Phyllis" is also considered the decade-ending conclusion to her most famous and widely read novel, "Wives and Daughters," which was published serially in "Cornhill Magazine" from August 1864. until January 1866