Childhood pals Roddy (Jonathan Kerrigan), Hal (Tom Goodman-Hill) and Mary Ellen (Melanie Clark Pullen) reevaluate their relationships as adults in this sweeping epic based on Catherine Cookson's novel. After an affair that leaves Mary Ellen pregnant, Roddy rejects her and leaves town, forcing her into a safe marriage to Hal. Years later, a mysterious American arrives to woo their daughter, and Hal discovers a secret about the suitor's identity.

Freddie Musgrave (Colin Buchanan) is a onetime smuggler who falls in love with a businesswoman and attempts to leave the criminal world behind him. When someone from Musgrave's past catches up with him in his new life, the ex-smuggler fears he could lose it all. Musgrave tries to pull through the crisis unscathed in this dramatic British television production set in the 1880s, an adaptation of a Catherine Cookson novel.

Tilly Trotter (Carli Norris) must defend herself against accusations of witchcraft in Victorian England in this adaptation of Catherine Cookson's romantic novel. With a superstitious mob clamoring for her death, a mine owner (Simon Shepherd) steps in to save the young lady. He later offers Tilly a job and soon falls for the beautiful woman, but faces a rival suitor for her hand, a handsome local farmer.