It is Cornwall in 1797. The winter is harsh. There are many shipwrecks. Smuggling is rife in the bays and inlets of the rugged coast. Revenue men patrol in teams. England is at war with France. The navy needs sailors, press-gangs are at work. Inland, both tin mines and china clay pits are employing workmen in dangerous conditions for very little reward. John Wesley's message is gaining in popularity among the poor, but hated by the gentry. Young Martha Baines is widowed when her husband is killed by the revenue patrol. With no obvious means of support she is prey to the evil ways of Rawdon, a rogue revenue man, and the heir to the local manor, Richard Trewarren. Trewarren dismisses his father's paternalistic approach to his tenants and sees himself as a business man impatient to modernise the estate and maximise profits. When Trewarren is led to widowed Martha Baines there seems only one outcome. Is her demise inevitable? Is his business success assured?