Ten-year-old Amy Farthing miraculously survives the sinking of the Lusitania but loses both her parents in the disaster. On her arrival in England her rich paternal grandfather Godfrey Farthing disowns the little girl for reasons he will not divulge but Amy is welcomed by her maternal grandmother Beth. Exchanging her life in New York for the hard realities of a Yorkshire mill town Amy soon makes friends with local lad Billy Eccles but she is the one true heir to the Farthing fortune and Godfrey is prepared to take whatever measures are necessary to ensure she never finds out...