It's the Lake District, 1908. To all appearances, Livia, Ella and Maggie Angel lead a privileged life in a large country estate, with seemingly little to disturb their happiness, but since the death of their mother, their family home has been a far from a quiet haven for them. Their bully of a father, Josiah Angel, who runs a high-class department store and has aspirations of becoming the town mayor, sees his daughters as mere bargaining tools in his property empire. Empty-headed, spoiled Ella is married off to a farmer in a remote part of the Lake District, but Livia, the eldest and most spirited of the three, refuses to be dictated to and suffers bitterly as a consequence. Having found true love with a man from the poorest district in town, she is not going to give in to her father's wishes quietly. The youngest sister, Maggie, is not so lucky, and her young life is blighted by her father's actions. When the sisters discover their father had an affair many years ago, which resulted in the birth of a baby girl, they determine to find their half-sister, and their search begins in the local workhouse. Mercy, however, is not so sure she wants to be found - throughout the hardships of life in the Angel family, the four sisters must learn to pull together to survive, and to choose their own destiny.