It's 1911 and Winifred Duffy is a determined young woman eager for new experiences, for a life beyond the grocer's shop counter ruled over by her domineering mother.The scars of Bill Howarth's troubled childhood linger. The only light in his life comes from a chance encounter with Winifred, the girl he determines to make his wife.Meeting her friend Honora's silver-tongued brother turns Winifred's heart upside down. But Honora and Conal disappear, after a suffrage rally turns into a riot, and abandoned Winifred has nowhere to turn but home.The Great War intervenes, sending Bill abroad to be hardened in a furnace of carnage and loss. When he returns his dream is still of Winifred and the life they might have had... Back in Lancashire, worn down by work and the barbed comments of narrow-minded townsfolk, Winifred faces difficult choices in love and life.