THE PRICE OF COAL 1909. The mines. Collier Jack Tyldesley heads off at 5.30am for another day's hard graft at the coalface. Risk is part of the job, but too often the cost of fuel outweighs the cost of the lives of men.
LONESOME LIKE 1911. The mill. Sarah Ormerod has worked in a Lancashire mill for many years, but age and hard work have taken their toll. Without a welfare state, what happens to the elderly and disabled?
THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW 1914. The home. Christopher Battersby is a devout Christian. When his daughter runs off to London with an unsuitable man, he struggles with his faith and the limits of what he can forgive.
NIGHT WATCHES 1916. The trenches. A new orderly begins work on the night shift at a Red Cross hospital, only to find that two of the patients are more comically surprising and disruptive that originally seemed.
