In depression-hit Thirties Britain, Sarah Burton returns from London to her Yorkshire hometown to take up the post of headmistress at a struggling girls' school. Full of ambition, she is determined to create a great school and inspire her girls. As Sarah struggles against the crippling poverty of the district, she meets those at the heart of the local community: her brilliant but poor student, Lydia Holly; the county's first woman Alderman, Mrs Beddows, whose sensible demeanour belies a girlish heart; the noble but ludicrous Methodist preacher, Councillor Huggins; Sarah's socialist suitor Joe Astell and the proud, haunted and almost ruined landowner, Robert Carne - a man Sarah finds herself drawn towards even though he stands for everything she detests...
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