Val Wood

1864: Following the untimely death of her cold-hearted husband, Beatrix and her three children are finally free. While Ambrose has already determined his path in life, eldest son Laurie's future is less certain. With the responsibility of the family estate on his shoulders, Laurie must decide between staying in Yorkshire to farm the family land and following his dreams.

Meanwhile, headstrong and independent Alicia is defying expectation and excelling at school. There she befriends the enigmatic Olivia Snowdon and they quickly become inseparable. But Olivia's family past is shrouded in mystery and as she begins to dig deeper secrets come tumbling out...

Can the two families overcome the challenges that lie ahead?

Emily was only five years old when she was sent away from her ma and pa and her brother Joe to go and live with old Granny Edwards. A loving and hard-working child, she goes into service when she is twelve at the house of Roger Francis, whose connections with Emily's own family prove to be closer than she could ever have guessed. Roger's daughter Deborah takes a great fancy to Emily, and when Emily has moved to another household in Hull she finds that her new employer's son Hugo is to marry Deborah. But Hugo, too, has taken a fancy to Emily, and dishonours and then betrays her to such an extent that she is imprisoned, tried and deported to Australia. But just when her fortunes seem to be at their lowest ebb, Emily is reunited with the one man who can save her from her miserable existence and bring her wealth and happiness.

For Amelia and her brothers and sisters, the grim past which their mother Emily had endured seemed very far away. As pretty as a picture, and now learning to be a teacher in York, Amelia looked forward with pleasure to becoming acquainted with the young men clamouring to get to know her, and especially the two gentlemen who had come all the way from Australia to meet her family. Ralph Hawkins, bringing with him his friend Jack - a handsome half-aboriginal Australian who was determined to make a good living for himself - arrived in Hull looking for his roots. He found Amelia, whose tangled family history was inextricably bound up with his.

Ralph Hawkins's whole world had been turned upside down when he learned that he had been adopted by the couple he had always called his parents. In his quest to find his real mother, he uncovered some cruel and unpleasant truths, before at last realising where his true destiny lay.

When Polly Anna's mother died when she was just three years old, it seemed the workhouse was the only place for her to go. But with the help of Jonty - a young misfit who soon became her best friend - she managed to escape, running away with the fairground folk. She became a horserider and acrobat, travelling all around the country. Her friends became the circus people, and her home the caravans and travellers' tents.

Meanwhile, in a great house in Yorkshire, old Mrs Winthrop has never given up hope of finding her daughter Madeleine, who eloped with a handsome gypsy and was never seen again. When her young neighbour sets out to find Madeleine, he discovers the colourful world of the fairs. And there, in the midst of it all, Polly Anna - once the waif from the workhouse, now a fully-fledged gypsy girl.

For reliable, thirteen-year-old Bella, life isn't turning out quite as she'd hoped. She lives at the Woodman Inn, run by her family in the Yorkshire countryside. When Bella learns not only that her father is seriously ill, but that her mother is expecting a fifth child, her dreams of leaving home to become a schoolteacher are quickly dashed.

1850: Beatrix Fawcett is just eighteen when her father tells her she is to marry a stranger. Hesitant, but with little choice, she agrees to the match - with hope for a good husband in Charles, and the surprising delight of a lovely Yorkshire house in which they are to live. As Beatrix sets to making the house a home, she falls in love with it and the countryside nearby. But she does not fall in love with her husband... It's clear Charles has chosen her simply to meet the requirements of his inheritance and has little interest in his young wife. Soon, the only spark in Beatrix's lonely life is her beloved children. But when Charles threatens to take them away from her, Beatrix must find strength in desperate times. Can she fight against her circumstances and keep what is rightfully hers?

In 1897, four-year-old Lucy Thornbury's parents are killed in a train crash. Taken in by her kindly uncle and aunt, Lucy grows up inspired to become a doctor, just like her father was. But training as a doctor in London takes Lucy far away from home, and with the dark clouds of the First World War gathering, will she be able to follow her dreams and find love in a world shattered by war?

Poppy Mazzini, born in Hull over her father's grocery shop, lives up to the promise of her fiery red hair and Italian ancestry. Her lovely singing voice and good looks lead her to her great ambition - to go on the stage and see her name top of the bill. She becomes a music hall star both in her native town and in the south, after an appearance in the theatre at Brighton - she even performs in Paris, to tremendous acclaim. But when her first love, an ambitious shoemaker in her home town, becomes engaged to someone else Poppy is devastated. She disappears, believing that she will never return to her life of stardom. But her fame cannot be kep a secret...