Brought up on her parents' smallholding in Jarrow, Rose McConnell knows she is luckier than many in Tyneside during the harsh years of the 1870s. But she can't help dreaming of the world she has glimpsed in the idyllic country estate of Ravensworth where her own mother grew up. And when she captures the heart of handsome William Fawcett, who comes from a respectable family and lives in the well-to-do James Terrace, it seems her dream of a better life is finally within her reach. As the years go by she is blessed not only with a loving husband she adores, but with a home of her own and a brood of beautiful daughters who she vows will never know the hardship of her upbringing. But with the poverty of Jarrow never far away, it sometimes seems that the security of Rose's new life is as delicate as her childhood dreams...