When tragedy strikes, she must find a new path...

Lily Thorpe is spirited, ambitious and desperate to escape the poverty of her Lake District home, and marry her secret sweetheart Dick Rawlins. But tragedy strikes and Dick is killed in a boating accident caused by the wealthy and arrogant Clermont-Read family. Lily is forced to reassess her future, and she embarks on a quest for revenge and marries Bertie Clermont-Read.

The young couple are rejected by his family and suffer the same poverty Lily had tried to escape. Lily starts a passionate affair with local steam boat captain Nathan Monroe and when she is threatened with vengeance she must decide who is more important - her husband or her lover.