When 17-year-old Mary O'Connor collapses one Sunday in church she is taken to live with Dr Roberts and his wife in a beautiful Yorkshire village. Though initially employed as a maid, Mary soon becomes the daughter the couple were never able to have.

Burly steelworker Jim Butler and his wife Sally are quite content in their little house on Potters Row. When Sally's generosity leads to an inheritance it should mean a change of life for the better, instead it brings danger and difficult choices for them all.

Lucy Gabbitas has just left school and is excited about joining her sisters at the local umbrella factory. But then her beloved father dies of lung disease leaving Lucy and her brothers and sisters broken-hearted. With barely enough to make ends meet, the family receive no sympathy from their tyrannical mother, Annie, and their first Christmas without him holds little comfort and joy. Things seem to be looking brighter for Lucy when she meets John Grey and falls in love. That is until Annie becomes seriously ill and dies, and Lucy is forced to put her family first. But despite their continued...