Cassandra Blake has raised her three motherless sisters. The girls are the pride of their book-loving impractical father & not in a hurry to marry. Then the American Civil War cuts off supplies of cotton to Lancashire the mills fall silent & there is no work. There is a stark choice: stay & risk starvation or pack up & begin again elsewhere. Cassandra has fallen in love with Reece Gregory but he cant support a wife. When hes given the chance to start a new life in Western Australia he seizes the opportunity promising to send for her. Then an old feud tears the family apart. Cassandra is kidnapped & her sisters are forced to sail with a group of desperate cotton lasses to Fremantle. Penniless & alone Cassandra is determined to find them again
- but when she is offered a way there is a painful price to pay.