Dynevor Terrace may be described as an extended family chronicle. All the main characters and many of the minor characters are either descendants of the Dynevors, an ancient Welsh family, or closely connected with them. The line had ended with three daughters, who all married in the 1 790s. In 1847, when the novel opens, only the eldest sister is still alive. Catherine has had a chequered life. Born the heiress of Cheveleigh, the family seat, she had married a Mr Frost who speculated in mines. At first his ventures were successful, and he invested some of the proceeds in Dynevor Terrace, built for letting in the small spa town of Northworld, near the seat of the earl of Ormersfield, who had married Catherine's younger sister. The earl involved himself in Mr Frost's speculations, and at his suggestion demolished the village adjoining his park, to improve his view. The villages were compelled to spend move some miles away to Marksedge, a desolate piece of heath land, where they grew unhealthy, impoverished and lawless.
