In 1937, with the country preparing for impending war, eighteen-year-old Linden Woods finds employment as a junior secretary at a Black Country steelworks, where she befriends the charismatic and liberated Penny, daughter of wealthy steel magnate Charles Burgayne. While Charles comes to admire Linden's competence, his sons Edward and Hugh admire her vivacious looks and sharp intellect and despite the class differences, vie for her attention, but with vastly different methods. Linden grows to love one brother and despise the other, with devastating consequences. Set in the industrial Black Country, in rural South Staffordshire and in Eire, Linden Woods is a compulsive tale of love, desire and heartbreaking treachery about a remarkable group of people and the events that shape their lives.