When a veteran of the Great War returns to England, he and his daughters faces a terrible new struggle in this historical family saga. World War I is at its height and Regimental Sergeant Major Probyn Kilmaster is in France, training raw recruits to send to the trenches. Meanwhile, his wife Grace contends with the hardships of raising their children alone in a Yorkshire pit village. But when Probyn finally returns home safely, the Kilmasters are struck by tragedy. Probyn attempts to keep the family together by giving his daughters a stepmother. But for Augusta, Maddie, Mims—and especially the sensitive Beata—this well-meaning gesture is more than they can bear. Now each must find her own way to escape the cruelty and oppression that has unwittingly been visited upon them.