Daisy Brindle is a field girl, tramping the roads of Lancashire in a gang of women and children, hired out by a brutal monster for stone picking, harvesting, winter work down the pits. Miles Thornley, heir to a great estate, arrogant and spoilt, changes her life. He teaches Daisy to love, seduces her - and casually casts her aside. He teaches her to hate.Driven onto the streets of Liverpool, Daisy is rescued by a man of honesty and restless energy, sea captain Sam Lassiter.

First as his mistress and then as his wife and business partner, Daisy comes to enjoy the better things in life. But her unrelenting drive for revenge on the dissolute Miles threatens the destruction of everything she has worked for and achieved. Begins finally to threaten her marriage to Sam Lassiter...