Hugh Morgan is thinking of getting married. Mwntseison sits on the Welsh coast and in the final years of the nineteenth century Hugh Morgan is the village Mishteer and its major employer. His sail-shed, which is managed by Ivor Parry and provides an income to most of the local households, is central to village life. The sail-shed is also the workplace of Gwladys Price - "a girl of eighteen, slim, tall, and of unusual beauty".