The world collapsed for eight-year-old, red-haired Rowena Lindsay when the pleasure boat Countess Of Eglinton sank on the Paisley canal in 1810. Her mother perished in the disaster and she and her brother Neil were sent to be brought up in the rich household of Fergus and Sarah Bain. It suited Neil, but it was a life Rowena hated. Something else happened that day which was to affect the whole of Rowena's life - the man who dragged her out of the canal was Kerr Fraser, the rugged mill employee who was to play a pivotal role in her and her brother's lives.