It's set twenty years after Pride and Prejudice. You can tell by the Bennet, can't you?
Mary Bennet is the middle sister of the five Bennet children: Jane, Elizabeth, Kitty and Lydia and has been entrusted to taking care of their mother as she was the only one who remained a spinster.
After their mother passes away, Mary is free to do whatever she wishes and being the stubborn girl she always was, she refuses to retire to Pemberley as Mr and Mrs. Darcy wishes her to do.
Instead, fuelled with passion spurred by a writer in the Westminister Chronicle by the name of Argus, she decides to write a book about the ills of England's slums that the well cared for upper class know nothing about.
She sets off on her trip and encounters tons of misfortunes and mishaps along the way as well as being captured by a deranged but extremely smart man by the name of Father Dominus who thinks himself as a priest.

That's as much as I am willing to tell. I have highlighted at least what I think are the main points of the book (as I am not a professional reviewer) to give you an idea of what it is about.
Personally, I love this book.
At first, it was difficult for me to understand being written in a style not familiar to me but after a while of reading, I managed to get a hang of how it is written and enjoyed the book to the very end.
The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet. That's the title of the book yet it's contents aren't so much toward it. Yes, it's focused around Miss Mary Bennet but also the people around her.
It is more of how her stubborn, independant woman doings affect the people around her.
She annoys her brother-in-law to no end with her beliefs that she should not need a companion eventhough she is unmarried and refuses to live with them at Pemberley. She makes an unsuspecting man fall in love with her when she is in love with his alter ego, Argus. She turns her once wimpy nephew, Charlie Darcy into someone whom his father is able to love.
The story doesn't tell you that she manages to get her book published and her dreams achieved yet they are achieved in a different way.
Instead of focusing on Miss Bennet, I love the way the Ms. McCullough also involves the people around her. A true masterpiece.

I seriously recommend that you read this book. It is funny, witty and charming. And the heroine is not someone extremely feminine but someone who takes matters into her own hand.

Disclaimer: This review does not endorse the author nor the publisher in any way and it is in no way linked to any newspaper, review website etc. It is my own review.