Rhian Gray left her Sweyn's Eye home for Yorkshire to learn the skills of spinning and weaving She also learnt to love Mansel Jack, the charismatic, ambitious mill owner who wanted to make her his mistress Now she is back in Sweyn's Eye, torn by anxiety, uncertainty and the problems of the Great War, a town whose worker's lives are governed by fear and anxiety Amidst the anguish and dedication of the women left behind, she must decide her own future, with her former sweetheart Heath Jenkins, or with Mansel Jack