Barchester Towers: The Bishop of Barchester lies on his deathbed. Soon a pitched battle breaks out over who will take power, involving, among others, the zealous reformer Dr Proudie, his fiendish wife and the unctuous schemer Obadiah Slope ; The warden: The Reverend Septimus Harding serves as music director of the Barchester Cathedral, and as the Warden of Hiram’s Hospital, a charitable home for 12 aged and indigent men. Some reformers start to argue that the Reverend’s salary is more than anyone should be paid for the Warden’s job, contending that more of the income arising from a centuries-old endowment should go to the poor old men themselves. Quickly, this debate reaches the highest levels of church authority, and before long, the whole nation through the editorial pages of the London newspaper The Jupiter. After that, everyone in the city of Barchester weighs in on the controversy, and Mr. Harding must grapple with all of them, and with his awakened conscience as well.