From the ashes of the war, can love blossom? Rhian Gray left her home in Sweyn's Eye to make a life for herself in Yorkshire, where she learnt the skills of spinning and weaving. She also learnt to love Mansel Jack, a charismatic and ambitious mill-owner. When Rhian returns to Sweyn's Eye, it is to a town torn apart by anxiety and uncertainty, by the devastation of the Great War, a town whose worker's lives are governed by fear. Amidst the anguish and dedication of the women who were left behind, Rhian must decide where her own future lies - in respectable marriage to Heath Jenkins, her former sweetheart - or in the arms of Mansel Jack.