As a solicitor in the small northern mining town of Hexham Sam Browne knows more than most about the affairs of many of the town's inhabitants. He has known several of his clients - men such as Michael McIver and Tom Beardsley - since his schooldays and he has become a friend of their families. When tragedy strikes affecting the different families in different and terrible ways Sam finds himself unwillingly drawn into the complicated emotional entanglements of their lives...