Candles in the Storm:
The storm that's raging when fisherman's daughter Daisy Appleby is born in a village just north of Sunderland could be taken as a warning of a turbulent life ahead. It's during another storm fifteen years later that her father and brothers are lost and Daisy rescues William, heir of a wealthy Southwick family, with whom she falls in love.

Reach for Tomorrow:
Rosie Ferry is hardly more than a child when her father and brothers are lost in a pit disaster. She has to grow up fast when her mother falls apart, leaving Rosie in charge of her two sisters. It's Rosie who finds them lodgings, Rosie who tramps the streets looking for work. Without her friends Davey and Flora, Rosie doesn't know how she'd cope.

Eve and her Sisters:
Following their father's death in a mining accident, sisters Eve, Mary and Nell journey to the Michaelmas fair at Gateshead to be put up for hire - it is that or face the workhouse. Eve, who has looked after her younger sisters since their mother's death, cannot bear the thought of them being separated so she is indebted to innkeeper, Caleb Travis, when he takes pity on her and agrees to hire them all.

Gilding the Lily:
Lily and Sarah Brown's childhood is an unhappy one. Sarah escapes by marrying Ralph Turner, a Sunderland dock worker, but Lily doesn't trust Ralph - a dark volatile man with a hidden cruel streak. When he tries to seduce Lily on his wedding day, her worst fears are confirmed. Ralph's younger brother John is cut from a different cloth, though, and Lily is increasingly drawn to him.