Captain Listowel takes his daughter, Louisa, to be brought up by Mr. and Mrs. Kelly because his wife is too fashionable and weak to be a good mother. He reports to his wife that the daughter has died. The Listowels then go abroad for a number of years, leaving their other children (Edward and Mary) to be educated, before returning. Meanwhile, Mrs. Belmont, a vulgar woman from Cork, succeeds in marrying Jemima to the elderly Sir Offingdon Wilmot. Her son, Robert Belmont, stirs up trouble in various ways, particularly by making Elizabeth Listowel suspicious of her husband.
When the Listowels return they hire a tutor for Edward, Mr. Villars, and a French governess for Mary. Mary is very flighty and headstrong, she falls for Mr. Villars and pursues him relentlessly. They encounter Louisa and befriend her, although she is very conscious of her lowly place and behaves appropriately. The resemblance between Louisa and Mary is noticed, and it is assumed by several people that Louisa is an illegitimate daughter, possibly of Elizabeth Listowel. Meanwhile, Talbot has fallen in love with Louisa but he is destined to marry an heiress, and Louisa refuses to accept him when she is possibly tainted with illegitimacy. Villars convinces Mary that she does not love him, and she eventually happily marries Stockdale. Villars proposes to Louisa, but she refuses him because she loves Talbot.
The focus then switches to Villars, who it is revealed, is really a relation of Lord Ellismore. There is a lot of complicated inheritances, assumed identities and intended marriages that surround him and the woman he truly loves, Eleanor Dunstanville. A cousin, Sybella, is introduced as a villain who deceived Villars into thinking that he must flee in order to ensure Eleanor's happiness. The happy resolution is held off for an extended period. Louisa stays with Mary and Stockdale, but Robert Belmont stirs things up repeatedly so that Stockdale believes Louisa to be a bad influence. Louisa retreats to a lodging, but Robert informs Ellismore of the planned union between Talbot and Louisa and hastens to prevent it, but encounters Louisa's servant Judith in her place, and under the misapprehension that she is Louisa, Lord Ellismore forces Judith to marry her longtime love Patrick Brian. Eventually all the mistaken identities are revealed and Villars and Eleanor, Louisa and Talbot are married. It is also revealed that Robert and Sybella has secretly married, but in doing so have cut Sybella out of all her possible inheritances. They are miserable together and Robert eventually shakes Sybella to death before fleeing the country.

Judith, Louisa's maid, speaks regularly and at some length in an Irish accent. However, it is notable for not being very detailed or specific - a lot of it is general non-standard. Louisa is repeatedly described as speaking with a Kerry accent but this is not represented. The social climbing Mrs Belmont is repeatedly described as vulgar, and there is some evidence that she code-switches. Some other servants and minor character speak in a slight Irish accent, but these are always fleeting and not very different from Judith, so I have not captured all of these.
There is an interesting scene towards the end of the third volume when Judith is mistaken for Louisa, but people are confused by her accent. There is also an 'illiterate letter' by Judith vol 3 p. 54.