Maud Richards was in her first year at a teacher-training college up in Newcastle. She was an excitable girl, full of expectations for what the future held for her, and she knew she wanted to teach. Her family was so proud of what she had already achieved because no one in her family had ever gone to college before. Most of the girls who came from a Lancashire town, as she did, were destined for the cotton mills, and most of the lads were destined for the coalfields or factories. It was natural to assume all of them would follow the family tradition, but not Maud or her younger sister, Sara. Their parents wanted them to have what they could not: a good education. ------------------------------------------------- Maud and Sara Richards lived in a cotton mill town in the foothills of the Rossendale Valley, Lancashire. Their parents wanted to give the two sisters the best opportunities they could-opportunities they themselves did not have. They sacrificed a great deal to give their daughters the best education possible. After fulfilling her education, Maud went into the world of teaching, which had always been her dream. She then met a solicitor called John Howard. She was in love with him. Theirs was the perfect marriage-or so she thought. For Sara, it took her sometime to realise her potential, as she was head over heels in love with Tommy Foster. Tommy was from the wrong side of the tracks with a bad reputation. However, she eventually joined the Royal Navy for adventure and excitement, only to become entangled with a Dave Phillip, who liked to be in control. For the girls, their journeys take them into a sordid world of deceit and danger.