Josh & Miriam Retallick & their grandson Ben seem almost part of the wild & rugged Cornish landscape of 1913. Yet a revolutionary spirit of change is sweeping across the country
- & the whole of Europe
- with terrifying haste. Even before the outbreak of the Great War with strike action compromising his position in the community & threatening the future of the China clay industry Ben is unsettled by the presence of his cousin Emma Cotton. Inspired by the blossoming suffragette movement it is a cause which takes her to London & a meeting with ardent campaigner Tessa Wren. As Emma & Tessa are plunged into the turmoil of driving ambulances to the front line in France Ben's wife Lily resigned to dying in a Swiss clinic pushes her husband towards this courageous new woman.. .