Vanbrugh's play tells of Loveless's relapse into marital infidelity when he falls for the beautiful Berinthia. Meanwhile, Worthy, an ex-lover of Berinthia's, tries to seduce Amanda by alerting her to her husband's unfaithfulness. Vanbrugh's play also features a prominent and hugely entertaining subplot in which the newly ennobled Lord Foppington vies unknowingly with his penniless younger brother for the hand in marriage of Sir Tunbelly Clumsy's daughter, Hoydon.