In a remote Lake District valley, an elderly shepherdess struggles to help a ewe give birth to her lambs. In the East End of London, a family flee the violence of an abusive stepfather to a small Lakeland village, and the teenage boy starts to run the fells. In a prison in the Western Fells, an inmate begins to earn his freedom by helping a local farmer. Seen through the unfolding seasons, the shepherdess, the fell runner and the prisoner, each with secrets and a turbulent past, are thrown together. As the story reaches its climax, the characters must live with the consequences that their secrets have on themselves and those they have come to love.