In the poverty-stricken mining town of Winton, Katie Benfield lives with her grandparents to ease the pressure on her own mother's full house. Despite the many hardships, young Katie achieves her goal of becoming a probationer nurse at the hospital in the neighbouring town of Bishop Auckland. Determined to complete her training and have a career of her own, she even puts off marrying her childhood sweetheart Billy to achieve her dreams. Then tragedy strikes, and Billy and her grandfather are both killed in a mining accident. Shocked and distraught, Katie finds herself vulnerable to the advances of the local ironmaster, Matthew Hamilton, a married man who wastes no time in taking advantage of her. Thrown out by her grandmother, shunned by the community, isolated and pregnant, Katie's future is far from certain. And then Matthew Hamilton offers her an alternative to a home for unmarried mothers, but only if she forgoes her principles and becomes his mistress...