Elspeth and Anna Patterson have at last to face the disgrace that has stalked them since childhood.
Driven from home by fear and shame, Elspeth and her baby find refuge among coal miners. Here she becomes a harness-wife in the deep sea-coast pits of the Forth and faces hardship and danger beyond imagining.
Anna, cast off by her lover Randall Bontine, sets out to snare a respectable, and wealthy, new husband. But Anna's ambition may ruin her life, and bring to Elspeth a fulfillment of the destiny that is her birthright.
