Elizabeth Bennet is a strong-willed yet sensible young woman, the second of five sisters. She has a long-suffering but loving clerical father, and a scatterbrained mother anxious to marry them off as soon as possible--to wealthy young gentlemen. At a local ball, she encounters one such, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, whom she finds arrogant, cold, and rude. Her older sister Jane falls in love with Darcy's best friend Mr. Bingley, while youngest sister Lydia...

Emma Woodhouse has beauty, wealth and a penchant for meddling in the love lives of others. Kate Beckinsale is Emma, a well-bred young lady who spends her time arranging what she sees as suitable matches. When she befriends Harriet Smith, she sees the timid young woman as the perfect beneficiary of her efforts. But the matchmaking sets off a chain of misunderstandings and mix-ups that challenges Emma's assumptions and draws her own heart into the fray....