The Lancashire village of Riggan is dominated by the pit, for it not only provides employment to most of those who live there, but is also a focus for the community's hopes and fears, and the place where friendships are made and lost. Joan Lowrie, one of the pit girls, has endured hardship, and beatings from her father, for as long as she can remember, but her pride, determination to rise above her lot, and natural intelligence make her stand apart from the other girls. So it is Joan who comes to the rescue of seventeen-year-old Liz, left to care for her young baby alone and taunted by the others. And it is Joan who attracts the attention of two very different men: Paul Grace, the local curate, longs to help her, but finds himself unable to master his shyness and reach her; his friend Fergus Derrick, the mining engineer, is also intrigued by her. Then the new vicar's daughter, Anice Barholm, whom Grace loves with a gentle passion, comes to Riggan. Generous and warm, she is quickly taken into the heart of the community, and becomes firm friends with Fergus. As Paul sees the two drawn together in sympathetic understanding, he feels his own inadequacies underlined, and fears he may lose everything .... Published in 1878, this is the first novel by the author of The Secret Garden and Little Lord Fauntleroy.