Margaret Hale moves with her parents from her much loved village in the south to a large town in the industrial north. Appalled by the smoke and noise of the mills, and shocked by the poverty endured by the mill workers, Margaret finds no common ground with her blunt northern neighbours. But in spite of herself she is drawn to one ambitious young mill owner, John Thornton. When Margaret befriends Bessy, a union leader's daughter, she becomes involved in worker-mill owner relations, leading her to get entangled in a violent strike - and this only increases the distance between her and John. Yet as Margaret herself sees, North and South had much to offer each other, if they could only bridge the gulf.