1895, County Durham. The Laydon Joneses are new to Selby Street and appear to be just another Welsh family come to work the local mines. But Carodoc Laydon Jones, dour and unforgiving, is a force to be reckoned with, be it down the pit, at chapel or in his own house where he rules with an iron fist. His daughter Susannah has inherited his strength but is determined not to take on his bitterness. This is part of the reason she is deeply intrigued by Jonty Clelland, a young pacifist schoolmaster, who is everything her father is not. But just when it seems that the attraction between them might finally blossom into love, an unthinkable tragedy occurs...