Josh and Miriam Retallick - and their grandson Ben - seem almost a part of the wild and rugged Cornish landscape of 1913. Yet, as a revolutionary spirit of change sweeps across the country with terrifying haste, endangering the institutions of both mining and marriage, they symbolise Bodmin Moor at its most vulnerable.
The advent of the Trade Unions and strike action pits owner against worker, compromising Ben's position in the community and threatening the future of the tin mining industry. And the presence of Ben's cousin, Emma Cotton, inspired by the blossoming Suffragette movement, is equally unsettling. It is a cause she pursues to London when she meets ardent campaigner Tessa Wren, but although Emma's steadfast refusal to marry young Jacob Pengelly stems from a commitment to her beliefs, the couple need to assess whether matrimony is truly incompatible with modern life.
Events , however, are soon to take an even more unexpected turn, when the onset of the Great War plunges Europe - and the family's lives - into turmoil...