Set in the woolen mills of northern England in the later part of the nineteenth century. Raised in extreme poverty in the North of England, the life working in the woollen mill was transformed by visits to an aunt in Redcar. Abel Moss rises from poverty to become a mill owner. He married Marion Hart, deeply in love with this self-made business man in the Yorkshire wool trade. At first, she was happy in her marriage, but eventually, she finds herself trapped in a loathsome marriage, and his brutish passion disgusted her and she comes to fear this domineering, and unfaithful husband.