Born into the squalor of the Ash-Pits, young Susan Lucket is determined to raise herself above the rural poverty of eighteenth-century Hampshire. Her natural talent for midwifery points her way forward, for all women share the pain and peril of childbirth, whether in manor house or hovel. But when Edward Calthorpe, youngest son of a privileged landowner, offers her marriage, the memory of her terrible childhood returns to haunt her. And when Edward's wayward brother seduces little Polly, her beloved younger sister - and then betrays her in the most brutal of ways - Susan faces losing everything she has struggled for. Does she still have the strength to fight for her right to happiness?