Cantankerous Mrs. Pringle is portrayed though the recollections of various other villagers who knew her during the various stages of her life, from her childhood, when she was known as Maud Gordon, to her stint as a house maid at a local manor house, then to her marriage to Fred Pringle, and finally to her current post as school cleaner, and her involvement in all of the village’s school, social and parochial affairs.