Devon, 1887. Life has not been kind to dairymaid Tresca Ladycott. She can’t rely on her flighty farmhand father, Emmanuel, so she relies on herself. Then comes a devastating blow. Tresca is sacked from the dairy, and the pair lose their home. She and her father seek a new life in bustling Tavistock. More hardship lies ahead. The only work to be found is hard labour on the London and South West Railway. Before long, Emmanual is out of work yet again, and Tresca is faced with keeping them both in their tiny garret home.

Dartmoor, 1875. Rose Maddiford, beautiful, vivacious and intelligent, could have her pick of men across Dartmoor. But she is in no hurry to marry unless it is for true love - and certainly not while she can help her father manage the Cherrybrook Gunpowder Mills. Then tragedy strikes. Rose’s father is injured by an explosion at the mill, and the family is left teetering on the edge of poverty. Rose is left with just two options: accept arrogant, controlling Charles Chadwicks’ proposal and move to London or let her family perish. Rose must choose duty over love. 

Dartmoor, 1914. Grace Dannings is a farmer’s daughter, but she dreams of making her mark as a London Suffragette. Too bad she’s stuck in Walkhampton, the sleepy village where she was born. As a child, she could escape to the wheelwright’s mill. Spellbound, she’d watch labourers hammer iron and timber into wheels. Now she’s a woman and nothing about the village feels like home. The men are brutish, the women afraid of change. Perhaps she could have married Martin, the mill owner’s son. But society says she’s not good enough.

Dartmoor, 1914. Twenty-four-year-old Marianne Warrington is in danger of being left on the shelf. That's what her mother says, and that’s precisely how she wants it. She has her future mapped out, and it doesn’t include marriage or babies. Instead, she vows to devote herself to rearing horses on her parents’ farm. Then World War One breaks out, and the Warringtons’ peaceful existence is shattered forever. Amid the chaos, Marianne seizes her chance to prove she’s more than just a spinster.

At 27 years old, Mariah Travers has become what she most feared - a spinster and a perpetual adolescent in the eyes of her family and the law. But her fortunes change when her father announces that he has promised her hand in marriage to an old friend and colleague in the House of Lords. Lord Peter deVere, Earl of Dunsford, is not at all who Mariah imagined marrying, but she is willing to take a chance on the older man in order to gain the freedom that only married women are allowed. 

Rita Blackthorn’s heart was barren and hard. In all of her life, she had never truly loved. But she had hated. Beneath the loving gaze of her daughter’s soft green eyes, her heart swelled with dark and dangerous emotions. Young Cathy Blackthorn has never experienced any loving response from her mother. It is her beloved Aunt Margaret, with a heart as big and warm as the summer sky, who has been more of a mother than her own could ever be. And when Cathy’s father brings home a London street urchin, Cathy despairs of ever winning her parents’ love.

Yorkshire Dales, 1850. As a terrible storm rages, Annabelle Wallis is shocked to find a distressed young woman at her cottage door, heavy with child. Moments later a baby girl is born. But by dawn, the mother has vanished, leaving behind the helpless child wrapped only in a silk peacock shawl. When news spreads that Lady Eliza Hartley, sister to a wealthy estate owner, has been found dead, Annabelle realises the terrible secret she has stumbled on. Terrified she’ll be blamed for Eliza’s death, Annabelle flees to the slums of York, where she plans to raise the orphan as her own.

It’s December 1902, and Rose O’Leary is looking forward to her baby girl’s first Christmas. But then tragedy strikes: her husband dies at the shipyard where he works, and within days his friend Nathaniel makes it plain he’s determined to have her. Rose flees with her child but soon finds the world is a cruel place for a beautiful woman with no protection. More tragedy ensues, and yet, although she’s bruised and broken, Rose is a fighter.

Clara Newton is the new Housemother of Shilling Grange Orphanage. Many of the children have been bombed out of their homes and left without families, their lives torn apart by the war, just like Clara’s. Devastated by the loss of her fiancé, a brave American pilot, she is just looking for a place to start again. But the orphans are in desperate need of her help.

Following the untimely death of her husband, Beatrix and her three children are finally free. While Ambrose has already determined his path in life, eldest son Laurie's future is less certain. Meanwhile, headstrong and independent Alicia is defying expectation and excelling at school. There, she befriends the enigmatic Olivia Snowdon and they quickly become inseparable. But Olivia's family past is shrouded in mystery and as she begins to dig deeper secrets come tumbling out.

A new century brings change to Eden Harris's ordered world. Despite years of service to the Bradburys, she hides a secret that would affect them all. When an enemy returns, her world is shattered and her secret exposed. Torn and provoked, she strains to protect her family until a devastating accident leaves her alone and frightened. As the threat against her grows, Eden takes her precious daughters and flees from the only place she's called home. But her attempt to start anew is not so simple. 

Sir Carlton Morley is famously possessed of extraordinary will, singular focus, and a merciless sense of justice. As a man, he secured his fortune and his preeminence as Scotland Yard's ruthless chief inspector. As a decorated soldier, he was legend for his unflinching trigger finger, his precision in battle, and his imperturbable strength. But as a boy, he was someone else. A twin, a thief, and a murderer, until tragedy reshaped him. Now he stalks the night, in search of redemption and retribution, vowing to never give into temptation, as it's just another form of weakness. 

1904: Ellen Copley is still a child when she leaves behind the sooty rail yards of Glasgow and crosses the Atlantic Ocean with a heart full of dreams. Yet within weeks of their arrival in America, her father has disappeared - leaving Ellen with resentful relatives, feeling alone and scared for her future. But then her kind Aunt Rose invites Ellen to stay with her large family in their rambling house on beautiful Amherst Island, which nestles like a jewel in the blue waters of Lake Ontario.

Abigail Beadle has given two decades of her life to caring for her late father and looking after the centuries-old family home. She has never married because Lucas Chadwick, the man she loved when she was young, left the village with his family. When her loathed stepmother dies, Abigail is glad to be released from the woman's nagging and bullying, but the will she left casts doubt on Abigail's inheritance. It is not until Lucas returns to the village and helps to get to the bottom of the complicated situation that Abigail begins to believe her life might be able to start at last.

In 1820, Salem Street is sparkling and new: eight small terraced houses built by a Lancashire mill owner for his best workers. Annie Gibson's family is one of the first to move in - a step up in the world for them. But when her mother dies, Annie's happy childhood ends and she is left to bring up her brother and sister. Red-haired, intelligent and startlingly pretty, Annie soon finds herself banished from home by a jealous stepmother. She finds work in the local doctor's household, where she learns about the fascinating world outside Salem Street.