In the 1800s, the American South was a highly stratified society in which different classes rarely intermingled. By the early twentieth century, the rise of a new class of nouveau riche titans of industry began to change that. It is against this backdrop of transition that Ellen Glasgow sets her novel The Romance of a Plain Man. The story follows poor but honorable Ben Starr as he works his way up the socioeconomic ladder in pursuit of the daughter of an aristocratic family.