The unforgettable story of a young girl born into poverty and raised in riches.

In a small village in the West Country a baby girl is born, the fifth child of an impoverished labourer. For little Blanche the future appears bleak. Then one fateful day Blanche's mother is requested at the 'big house' to nurse Marianne, the motherless daughter of John Savill whose wife has died in childbirth. The two girls, so different in their hopes, are brought up together caring for each other as sisters.

Blanche is torn between her love for her real mother and her desire for a life of wealth and ease. Her friendship with Marianne remains the one constant in her life. But then she meets Marianne's intended husband, with tragic consequences for them all.

In this original and vivid saga, Jess Foley weaves a tale of passion and pain against a background of unsentimentalized rural England.