Like his favourite Aunt Kit, Probyn Kilmaster wants more out of life than to follow his father down the pit. The youngest of seven children, six of them girls, Probyn is sick of being ordered around. He has always admired Aunt Kit's disregard for convention and, using her as inspiration, runs away to join the army, thus alienating himself from the rest of his family. On his first foreign posting he becomes involved with a woman much older than himself who persuades him to go through an unofficial wedding ceremony. But when, like his sisters, his 'wife' starts to boss him around, Probyn searches for escape. Narrowly avoiding court martial, he is sent back to England seeking to rectify his mistakes and make peace with his family. When he falls in love and marries a young inexperienced woman, Agnes, his family are horrified - she is a Catholic unlike themselves. But Probyn stands by his decision and finds success in his work and domestic life - until the 'wife' from his youth turns up on the doorstep one day, and his world is thrown into turmoil.