The English travelers follows the lives of three descendants of the Estlin family--from their British roots to their eventual settlement in Manitoba, Canada. In Part I, Susannah Estlin travels across France to Paris in July 1789, where she comments on French customs and the plight of the people. She describes the attractions of Paris, and witnesses the fall of the Bastille and seizure of the City. In Part II, John Prior Estlin, Susannah's grandson, comments on London during the late 1840s, where he embraces soirees, fish dinners, and public baths. In his daily journal he describes everything from charades and the Chartist movement to bodies floating in the Thames. In Part III, Susannah's great grandson, Alfred Estlin, immigrates to Canada in 1891 and takes on the responsibility of settling the family on the vast plains near the Souris River. The family adapts to a different lifestyle and struggles with continual losses due to the harsh climate, until they gradually assume new vocations in the small town of Melita, Manitoba.