Eliza Wharton is the novel’s protagonist and the titular “coquette”—an epithet frequently applied to her by the people in her social circle. Eliza is young, innocent, and new to the social world, having been previously confined by an unwanted engagement. Eliza is curiously and highly self-aware, and incredibly naïve. She is conscious of her love of fashionable and extravagant living. She is aware, as she tells Mr. Boyer, that “[s]elf knowledge […] is that most important of all sciences [that] I have yet to learn” (28). She is also fickle and indecisive. The people in her social circle easily influence her feelings toward the men in her life. Despite this, she is frequently praised for her intelligence, liveliness, and filial devotion. She is willing to sacrifice her own happiness in order to act in accordance with her family’s wishes for her future. In addition, she esteems her mother over all else. By the end of the novel, Eliza cares only for the forgiveness of heaven and her mother. 

The plot of the novel focuses on the conflict Eliza feels in choosing a suitor. Reverend John Boyer appeals to her sense of honor, her want of stability, and her religiosity.