Elizabeth is the daughter of a cotton master in Manchester. She meets the son of the Earl of Cumberland, the handsome, worldly and knowledgeable James and they marry. The Second World war looms over them and James is very quickly engaged in serving his country, leaving his shy bride at home to nurse his ageing and ill father and eventually running the whole 15,000 acre estate. When the old man dies, Elizabeth is left in possession, but she has failed to conceive. James blames her and looks for another wife. However fate takes him to India, fighting the Japanese and then he disappears believed dead. Elizabeth blossoms. She loves the estate and it's people and is her father's daughter, successful. But there are insurmountable problems, like death duties. That is when Alistair, her husbands no 2 enters the scene. What will happen, Can Lizzie save the estate? Relatives are already circling and what to do about an heir?