In a Swaledale village of the 1850s, Sarah Coates marries William, a young lead miner, and goes with him to seek a better life in America. Once there, she finds she has no love for a drunken William and she becomes involved with the town's lawyer, Philippe Jounot. Through the jealousy of Philippe's cousin, Marie, and after William's death in a miners' brawl, Sarah returns to Swaledale to escape from a Philippe she knows she loves in vain.