When Eppie Watt's husband is tragically drowned at sea, leaving her penniless with Charlotte, a young daughter, Eppie takes the post of housekeeper to Alexander, a wealthy widower. In the same house are Alexander's son and daughter, and his domineering mother. Alexander sees a way to escape his mother by proposing to Eppie. That would suit her too as he is willing to take on Charlotte as his own. She accepts but finds it causes more problems...The mother gossips to the villagers that Eppie is a gold digger; Alexander, now free of his mother, becomes domineering himself; Alexander quarrels with his son over a career and with his daughter who has been spoiled by her grandmother and is now self-willed and rebellious and the daughter takes it out on Charlotte, Eppie's daughter. Life is difficult for Eppie and she is fighting a losing battle. And when she meets Foy, a quarryman, she is very much drawn to him...