A story of love and passion tinged with melancholy for a disappearing rural world, Under the Greenwood Tree evokes life in the village of Mellstock. When two newcomers arrive in the village they both create a furore - the Reverend Maybold by bringing modern ways to the church choir, and the schoolteacher Fancy Day by stealing the hearts of three men. Hardy's gentle, pastoral early novel introduced readers to his fictional county of Wessex for the first time.