Mary Barton is the pretty daughter of a factory worker who finds herself
dreaming of a better life when the mill-owner s charming son, Henry,
starts to court her. She rejects her childhood friend Jem s affections
in the hope of marrying Henry and escaping from the hard and bitter life
that is the fate of the workers, who are resentfully dependent on the
callous mill-owners for their livelihoods. But when Henry is shot dead
in the street Jem becomes the prime suspect and Mary finds her loyalties
tested to the limit."