Dione Sheradon's young love turns to bitter hatred when her betrothed, army officer Sir Ralph Barnet, deserts her on her father's bankruptcy. Sure she is pregnant and despairing of her suicidal parents, she wanders into the arms of simple Jack Heron, a wagon driver for Wylam pit. They are swiftly married and he believes the child is his.

Dione has to become Dee Heron, living in a one-room house with her in-laws and never being quite accepted among the miners' wives.

Dee rests gratefully in the love of Jack but her baby Billy reminds her of Ralph and she cannot love him. He becomes a troublesome child, doubly so when his brother Francis is born and Dee embraces Jack's child with all the love she feels for Jack.

What terrible deed will the unloved child perpetrate on his brother when they grow to manhood and fall in love with the same girl?