To escape the malign interest of her possessive and drunken step-father, Kate Fawcett is sent away from teeming Tyneside and finds work at Ravensworth Castle. She soon attracts the attention of charming, headstrong Alexander Pringle Davies, a distant cousin of the Earl, who risks incurring the wrath of his family by courting lowly Kate. Kate finally succumbs 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 goes home 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 angel child.