Alice and Isaac have been close friends since childhood but their paths diverge when they discover they have very different values...
Alice Leigh is being prepared for marriage by her mother but has her eyes opened to the injustices faced by girls and women when she gets involved with the charity that runs the House of Help for Friendless Girls, befriending worker Emma Hyde. She has dreams of going to London to continue the fight for women's rights. But her mother won't allow it.
Meanwhile, Isaac Hinchcliffe is set to take over his adoptive father's steel works when his long-lost mother re-appears after an absence of almost twenty years. Isaac, who has always been troubled by his abandonment, is angry and denounces his mother, but also the life he leads. He gets a job as a warder in a mental asylum.
Alice and Isaac are becoming estranged. She thinks he should forgive his mother. He doesn't agree with the women's rights cause. Can the pair ever reconcile? Or are their differences too big to overcome?