Churchhill is an estate in Sussex that was purchased by Charles Vernon after his sister-in-law Lady Susan persuaded her husband Frederic to prevent the sale of their ancestral home Vernon Castle, in Staffordshire, to his younger brother. The house is a good one with fashionable furniture, but Charles Vernon and his wife Catherine do not entertain often.
Lady Susan comes to stay after she leaves Langford, preventing the Charles Vernons from going to see their maternal grandparents in Kent. While she is there, she begins a relationship with Catherine's brother Reginald De Courcy. After this relationship ends and Lady Susan is exposed for her manipulations, Lady Susan's daughter Frederica comes to live with her aunt and uncle in Churchhill.