This is the fictional story of an heroic family that, through hard work and perseverance, rises from modest beginnings to become the preeminent Woolen manufacturer in north Yorkshire, England. It is a history of the north Yorkshire area in that era, written by Thomas Armstrong in 1947 not long after the era it depicts. It is the history of the Woolen Mill industry in the north of England and it's ups and downs in the face of technological progress. And it is the history of the rugged people who inhabited this land at that time.