Living hand to mouth ever since her mother’s tragic death, Amelia sells the last of her treasured possessions to avoid being cast out of her home onto London’s streets. Her estranged grandfather unexpectedly bequeaths a small struggling factory making mourning dresses and Amelia dares to dream… Drawing sketches by candlelight, she longs to sew elegant gowns from fine silks and beautiful ribbons for the rich. As the cold winter wind begins to bite, Amelia’s future hangs by a thread – can she keep her hopes alive?

Abandoned by their parents and left to fight for themselves, headstrong Rosalind Carey has no choice but to take charge of her younger brothers and sister in Devonshire’s grand Rockwood Castle. But their once much-loved home is crumbling like the family that lives within it. Living hand to mouth and desperate to provide for the estate that depends on them, the Carey family are one debt away from ruin. Until the day comes when the dashing Piers Blanchard appears on their doorstep from Cornwall, claiming he is Rosalind’s distant cousin and that Rockwood Castle is his.

London, 1854: 20-year-old Essie Chapman lives with her father in poverty-stricken Limehouse, working on the river as a boatman. Her life seems set before her, never to leave this part of London and forever at her father's beck and call. Then, one night, she must transport a mysterious man from a foreign ship to the banks of the Thames, a man who ends up renting a room in Essie's house, identifying himself only as 'Raven'.

With the country on the brink of war, single mother Jean embraces her ten-year-old daughter, Valerie, before she puts her on a train to Somerset alongside hundreds of other evacuees. Jean’s heart breaks as she vows they’ll be together again soon, knowing it’s a promise she might not be able to keep. Wrenched away from her mother and everything familiar, Valerie arrives in Somerset and nervously waits in the village hall to find a host family.

Paradise Row, London. December 1865. Snow is falling fast, and Sally Suggs is working tirelessly to bring in enough money to keep bread on the table. Her father, a skilled rag-and-bone man, has fallen ill, and now Sally has taken up his trade. But this is a man’s world and competition is fierce, and Sally’s rival, Finn Kelly, always seems to be one step ahead.