When the brash railway contractor Elijah Hepworth and his rowdy crew of navvies arrive in Millcastle the town is divided between those who embrace the possibility of change and those who want things to remain the same. Alice Collins, who has recently come to live at Grafton Hall, knows which side she'd prefer to be on, but Mr. Hepworth obviously has other ideas. When the comfortable, safe existence Alice hoped for is snatched from her grasp, will she accept an offer from a man who never claims to be a gentleman, but who might be what she needed all along?