This is a story of love; Peggy Kirkwood's enduring love for her fiance, killed as a pilot in the Great War; love for the people of her home community, especially the children she teaches. She is determined to honour the promise of 'A Land Fit for Heroes' the country made to the men who went off to war. Instead she has to fight prejudice against women having a career and the educatiioon of the children who would form the next generation of 'cannon fodder'. The story, with its dark moments and lighter patches, follows her struggles from the end of the Great War, through the mining strikes of 1925 and 1926,to the easing of things for the miner's families on their return to work.