Despite family opposition, Timothy Durkin, only child of Lord Akers' land agent, marries Hannah Armstrong, a pitman's daughter. But he breaks her heart by expecting her to live apart from him while he finishes his studies at Oxford. Stricken, Hannah returns to her parents' home village in the Durham coalfields. Winton has changed; the miners are rising up against the coal owners and preparing for the General Strike. Then Timothy returns to Hannah, the wife he has never really understood. Can she accept the differences between them or will her pride separate them for good?