Harry's early years were blighted by a brutal stepfather. But when he was five, his mother finally met and married a decent man, a coal miner and passionate believer in workers' rights. Loved by his new family, Harry embraced their socialism and even considered rejecting his inheritance from the family he never knew.

Harry graduates from Oxford with dreams of becoming an artist but when he returns to Pontypridd he finds that his beloved 'grandfather', ex-miner Billy Evans, has lung disease and, when Billy is sent to a sanatorium in the Welsh Hills, the only one free to accompany him is Harry. There Harry meets two very different women: Diana, a beautiful, feminist medical student; and Mary, an illiterate, orphaned farmer's daughter fighting to keep her family together.

Harry falls in love - only to suffer rejection - and for the first time learns about life, love and the responsibility that comes with inherited wealth . . .