The unloved child, Billy Heron, with a new identity of Sir Ralph Barnet, returns to Tyneside where his mother, Dee Heron, is living a life of drudgery at stately Mrs Hammond's.

He hopes to transform the lives of all his family with the wealth he has accrued over his seven years' absence and he comes with a wife, Sophia of the Spanish aristocracy, and a son, Mateo, whom he loves with a passion.

But the outcome is not the triumph he visualised. Sophia is unaware of his illegitimacy and his youth as a miner and Dee is troubled by 'this barrier of lies'.

Ralph becomes too engrossed with business and Sophia, who has never settled, feels neglected. She dreams of Mateo on her Spanish estate while Ralph arranges schooling for him in Newcastle.

Then a revelation of Ralph's past produces an explosion in their lives and the unloved wife plans a terrible revenge.