Tragedy strikes a small Yorkshire mining town when Sarah Wild's husband dies in a terrible accident. Widowed and destitute Sarah is forced to remarry to save her daughters Mary-Anne and Eliza from the workhouse. When their mother tragically dies the sisters are left under the care of their drunken step-father. Unable to rely on him they are determined to stick together. But things are complicated when Mary-Anne the eldest falls pregnant with the child of a married mine-owner. Scared and unsure what to do the sisters try to hide Mary-Anne's pregnancy. But such things cannot stay secret for long...