The story begins when Jane is 10. Her parents are dead and her aunt at Gateshead Hall has taken her care of. There she lives a miserable life with her cousin John who bully’s her. After a fight with John she is put in the room where her uncle died. There she has a nightmare. Late at night she is taken back to her room by Bessie, the nurse. She isn’t well so Bessie call’s the apothecary. To him Jane says that she wants to go to school. For weeks nothing happens. At one day Mr. Brocklehurst arrives. He is the head of Lowood Institute. Jane goes to Lowood and meets Helen, a very intelligent child. Helen dies of tuberculosis.
Many other children die at the same time of typhus, because of the bad food. Mr. Brocklehurst is degraded to the post of treasurer and other people are caring for the children. When Jane is 18 she wants to go away. She is a teacher now and she places an advertisement as a governess. She gets one reply, from Mrs. Fairfax at Thornfield Hall. Jane becomes a governess there for Adele a little orphan and ward of Mr. Rochester, the master of the house. Mr. Rochester isn’t home and there are strange things going on in the house. Many days pass away. One day when Jane goes out to the village to post a letter, she meets a horseman with his dog.
The horse falls and the man is hurt and Jane helps him on his feet. When she is back home she recognizes the dog and understands that the horseman is Mr. Rochester. She meets Mr. Rochester many times and they have interesting conversations and she starts to like him very much, in spite of his sarcastic and authoritarian manners. He tells her much about his journeys. Sometimes she hears strange laughter in the night coming from the third floor. One night hears a noise and finds out that Mr. Rochesters bed is on fire. She puts out the fire and Mr. Rochester expresses his gratitude in an emotional way. Jane finds herself in love with Mr. Rochester.
After that event Mr. Rochester invites a lot of guests. One of the guests is Miss Blanche Ingram, a very beautiful woman who tries to secure Mr. Rochester, which gives great pain to Jane. Jane thinks that Mr. Rochester wants to marry Blanche Ingram. One day a stranger arrives, a Mr. Mason from Spanishtown, Jamaica. Mr. Rochester seems to be very upset by his arrival. In the night Jane hears terrible screaming from the third floor. Mr. Rochester asks her to help him. He brings her to the third floor where she sees Mr. Mason badly wounded and bleeding. All the time Jane thinks that the laughter and the attack on Mr. Mason are the work of Grace Poole, a servant, and Mr. Rochester lets her also believe that. In the morning a servant visits Jane from her aunt who wants to see her on dying bed. Jane gets permission to visit her. Her aunt gives her a letter written 3 years ago by her Uncle John Eyre in which he wants to adopt Jane and make her his heir. After the funeral Jane returns to Thornfield Hall.
The guests are all gone and Mr. Rochester asks her to be his wife. During the wedding in the church, Mr. Mason appears and tells the priest that Mr. Rochester is already married to his sister and that she lives at Thornfield Hall. Mr. Rochester shows his wife to the audience. His wife is insane and behaves like a wild beast, and he has been married to her for 15 years. Jane has great pity with him but she decides to go away because she can’t live with Mr. Rochester as his mistress. She sneaks away in the night with little money and takes a carriage to the north of England and then she has no money left. After many days of starvation a young clergyman, St. John Rivers and his two sisters Diana and Mary take her care of. After many weeks she wants to pick up her life and becomes a village teacher. Mary and Diana become both governess. The school is a success thanks to Jane.
One day Mr. Rivers arrives and wants to tell Jane something. He tells her that he is her cousin and that she has inherited a fortune from her deceased Uncle John. Jane wants to share it with her newfound relatives so that they need no longer be governess and come home to Moor house. For some months they all live quietly together. St. John Rivers, a cold man, wants Jane to be his wife. Not for love but he wants her to take to India, where he will be a missionary. Jane refuses, she only wants to go unmarried because she cannot love him. One evening St. John almost succeeds in his attempts to persuade Jane, but suddenly she hears Mr. Rochesters voice calling her name. Immediately she knows what to do and the next day she travels to Thornfield Hall to find out what has become of Mr. Rochester. She finds the house burnt down. After talking to the host of the inn she hears that Mrs. Rochester had set fire to the house several months ago. She fell from the roof and died instantly and Mr. Rochester had become blind and lost his right hand by trying to save her. She finds Mr. Rochester in an old manor and after some days they marry. After two years Mr. Rochester regained the sight in his right eye.