The Mill on the Floss , based on George Eliot's own experiences of provincial life, is a masterpiece of ambiguity in which moral choice is subjected to the hypocrisy of the Victorian age.

Its story revolves around the lives of Tom and Maggie, the children of the honest but ignorant miller, Mr. Tulliver. As the headstrong Maggie Tulliver, highly strung and rebellious, grows into womanhood, the deep love which she has for her brother Tom turns into conflict, because she cannot reconcile his bourgeois standards with her own lively intelligence.

Maggie and her frustrations are unable to adapt to her community or break free from it, and the result, on more than one level, is tragedy.