A tenant farm in nineteenth century England provides the setting for this story of love, loss and redemption.

Davy Armstrong struggles hard for his place at Cock Shield Farm. He finds himself at odds with the owner, a man of mordant temper and villainous pride, whom the gods humble by sending him a son, born crippled. Davy's trials include the love of two women. One he scorns, the other, marries.

"Catherine Cookson writes with conviction about the north of England. Her novels have a powerful narrative style combining human warmth, pathos, comedy and tragedy." (Novels and Novelists)