Three young women find themselves doing what they must to survive in a male-dominated world. It is 1838. In the poor copper-mining village of Meryen, carpenter's daughter Amy Lewarne finds her life changed for ever the day she searches for her missing brother, Toby, and finds him dead. And troubles follow when Titus Kivell, head of a belligerent and reclusive family, feeling it time to break out into the swiftly expanding world of the new Victorian era, puts his wild son Sol in Toby's place. Amy and Sol are drawn to each other, but fate seems to conspire to deny them lasting happiness. Heiress Tara Julyan is forced by the cruel, autocratic squire Darius Nankervis to marry his son Joshua; and although Joshua is kind, he guards a secret that would destroy him and perhaps Tara too. And for poverty-stricken Sarah Hichens, who is struggling to support her crippled mother and young siblings, tragic times lay ahead when her beauty attracts Titus Kivell.