1902: Jarrow, Tyneside. To escape her possessive and drunken step-father, nineteen-year-old Kate Fawcett is sent away from Tyneside and finds work at Ravensworth Castle. She soon attracts the attention of charming Alexander Pringle-Davies, as distant cousin of the Earl, and allows herself to be seduced, but Alexander is forced abroad by his father and into an unwanted betrothal. Discovering she is carrying Alexander's child, Kate returns to Jarrow to face the wrath of her step-father and the censure of their neighbours and resigns herself to a lonely life of drudgery. But it is her daughter Catherine who gives her life meaning and keeps Kate from giving up - that, and the thought that Alexander might one day return to claim her and their child...