Adam, a young man brought up in a colony of northcountrymen among the lead mines of Spain, comes home on his father's death to the little town of Winterings, among the dales of the North Riding. The fells about the town are a warren of small lead mines, and Winterings is still a mining community, though the prosperity of the mid-19th century has passed. Two concerns work the area, and it is round the rivalry of the East Side and West Side companies that the story is built. On the one hand are the Nattrasses, cousins to Adam through his mother, but long-standing enemies of the Brunskills; on the other Titus Alderson, uncle of Cherry Dinsdale, a local girl to whose goodness and charms Adam soon succumbs. When Adam begins to suspect who has plotted Titus' disgrace, the stage is set; sides are taken in the little community and tongues wag; subterfuge and counter-plot get to work.