On their father's death, Jenny and Dahlia Rendall, with their mother Louisa, move across the river to the heights of Upper Radstowe. Here they try to make a living by taking in lodgers. But their neighbours eye this all-female household with alarm and distrust -- especially when a local farmer takes to calling on Louisa, now an attractive, if not entirely respectable widow. Dahlia takes it all with a pinch of salt; fastidious, conventional Jenny cannot. Embarrassed by her mother's country ways, smarting at every slight, both real and imaginary, she longs for a different life. Then Jenny falls in love with a handsome young squire -- but certain of his prejudice and a prisoner of her pride, she dares not reveal her name...