Scratching a livelihood out of the stunning but harsh Scottish terrain, the Guthrie family cowers in obedient fear of its brooding patriarch, a man prone to sudden and ferocious bursts of anger. As Guthrie's long-suffering wife retreats into silence, attention shifts to his daughter Chris, a beautiful and intelligent young woman divided between her hatred for the coarse people in her village and her love of the landscape. Chris dreams, as does her brother Will, of freedom and escape. The first comes suddenly. The second is more complicated: the arrival of handsome young Ewan Tavendale into her life brings happiness, only for it to be disrupted by the Great War.