Margaret Hale, 19, has her life turned upside down when her father, the pastor, leaves the Church of England and settles with his wife and daughter in the Black Country. A textile-producing region, it is engaged in cotton-manufacturing and is smack in the middle of the industrial revolution where masters and workers clash in the first organized strikes. Margaret finds the bustling, smoky town of Milton harsh and strange and she is upset by the poverty all around and by her meetings with a Mr Thornton (Patrick Stewart). From the outset, Margaret and Thornton are at odds with each other: she sees him as coarse and unfeeling; he sees her as haughty. But he is attracted to her beauty and self-assurance and she begins to admire how he has lifted himself out of poverty.