Plot summary
The novel is set in the early years of the 19th century. Silas Marner, a weaver, is a member of a small Calvinist congregation in Lantern Yard, a slum street in Northern England. He is falsely accused of stealing the congregation's funds while watching over the very ill deacon. Two pieces of evidence implicate Silas: a pocket knife, and the discovery of the bag formerly containing the money in his own house. There is the strong suggestion that Silas's best friend, William Dane, has framed him, since Silas had lent his pocket knife to William shortly before the crime was committed. Lots are drawn in the belief – also shared by Silas – that God will direct the process and establish the truth, but they indicate that Silas is guilty. The woman Silas was to marry breaks their engagement and marries William instead. With his life shattered, his trust in God lost, and his heart broken, Silas leaves Lantern Yard and the city for a rural area where he is unknown.
Silas travels south to the Midlands and settles near the rural village of Raveloe in Warwickshire where he lives isolated and alone, choosing to have only minimal contact with the residents beyond his work as a linen weaver. He devotes himself wholeheartedly to his craft and comes to adore the coins, many of them gold, he earns and hoards from his weaving.
One foggy night, Silas's two bags of coins are stolen by Dunstan ("Dunsey") Cass, the dissolute younger son of Squire Cass, the town's leading landowner. On discovering the theft, Silas sinks into a deep depression despite the villagers' attempts to aid him. Dunsey disappears, but the community makes no connection to the theft, since he has vanished several times before, and he accidentally killed the horse he was supposed to sell for his elder brother, Geoffrey.
Godfrey Cass harbours a secret past. He is married to, but estranged from, Molly Farren, an opium-addicted working-class woman living in another town. This secret prevents Godfrey from marrying Nancy Lammeter, a virtuous, beautiful young middle-class woman. On a winter's night, Molly tries to make her way to Squire Cass's New Year's Eve party with her two-year-old girl to announce that she is Godfrey's wife. On the way, she takes opium, collapses in the snow and dies from the cold. The child wanders into Silas's house. Silas follows the child's tracks in the snow and discovers the dead woman. When he goes to the party for help, Godfrey goes to the scene of the accident, but resolves to tell no one that Molly was his wife. Molly's death enables Godfrey to marry Nancy; he promises to abandon his dissolute life and reform.
Silas keeps the child and names her Hephzibah (nicknamed Eppie) after his deceased mother and sister. Eppie changes Silas's life completely. He has been robbed of his material gold, but thinks that he has it returned to him symbolically in the form of the golden-haired child. Godfrey Cass continues to conceal the fact of his previous marriage, but keeps an eye on his child. He aids Marner in caring for Eppie with occasional financial gifts. Dolly Winthrop, Silas's kindly neighbour, provides more practical help and support in bringing up the child. Eppie draws Silas into village society.
Sixteen years pass. Eppie considers Silas her father. Silas has found a place in the rural society and a purpose in life. Meanwhile, Godfrey and Nancy are childless, after the death of their only baby. Eventually, the skeleton of Dunstan Cass and Silas's money are found at the bottom of the stone quarry near Silas's home after the water level goes down, and the money is duly returned to Silas. Shocked by this revelation, and coming to the realisation of his own conscience, Godfrey confesses to Nancy that Molly was his first wife and that Eppie is his child. They offer to raise her as a gentleman's daughter, much to Silas's distress. Eppie politely but firmly refuses, saying, "I can't think o' no happiness without him."
With his money restored, Silas takes Eppie to revisit Lantern Yard, but his old neighbourhood has been "swept away" in the intervening years; the place has been replaced by a large factory. No one knows what happened to Lantern Yard's inhabitants. However, Silas contentedly resigns himself to not knowing and now leads a happy existence among his self-made family and friends. In the end, Eppie marries a local boy she has grown up with, Dolly's son Aaron, and they move into Silas's house, which has been newly improved courtesy of Godfrey.
