The evening Rose Bentley takes a short-cut home across the marsh proves a fateful one. Panicked by the rising tide and struggling on a sprained ankle, it is no wonder she imagines seeing a dead body in a mud-drowned gully. Her rescuer Michael Dowland, the brusque but attractive son of the mill owner, assures her there is nothing there. In the cosy warmth of the kitchen at Dowland's Mill, visions of dead bodies do seem far-fetched, and soon Rose begins to fall in love with both man and house. Once installed in the Mill as Michael's wife, Rose sees a different picture. Despite her gentle manner, Mrs Dowland rules her family with a rod of iron. More worrying to Rose is the change in Michael who is no longer the loving man she married. But Rose is only beginning to discover the truth about the family at Dowland's Mill . . .

After fleeing her divided Dutch homeland, Jannekyn van der Hest comes to Colchester, Essex, looking to make a new life for herself. Though she seeks comfort and community, she finds herself at the mercy of her cruel uncle, who condemns her to a demeaning life as a kitchen maid. As she struggles to regain her independence and make a life for herself in the cloth trade, Jannekyn will need all the courage and resourcefulness she possesses - especially when she falls in love with an Englishman, whose arrival turns Jannekyn's world upside down. Will this burgeoning romance reverse Jannekyn's fortunes, or will she never quite be able to escape her past?

When Ginny Appleyard's childhood sweetheart returns home after his racing season aboard the yacht Aurora, her hopes that he is bringing her an engagement ring are shattered, as Nathan disembarks with Isobel Armitage; the daughter of Aurora's owner. Instead of the hoped-for proposal, Nathan tells Ginny that he is leaving their home town and following Isobel to London, to pursue his dreams of becoming an artist. Already distraught at the tragic death of her father, Ginny is devastated to hear that Nathan and Isobel are to be married and her heartache is compounded when she discovers that she is expecting Nathan's child. Forced by her mother to choose between a loveless marriage of convenience to the rough sailor Will Kesgrave, and the more sinister option of being 'put away', Ginny Appleyard's future is far from certain . . .

The year is 1916 and twenty-year-old Poppy Barlow is clearing the desk of her late father when she comes across a faded photograph of her father with his two sisters - aunts that Poppy never knew she had - along with their address. Poppy contacts her aunts, and is thrilled when they invite her to stay with them in Sheffield. But while Dale House might look grand from the outside, on closer inspection, the place is run-down and crumbling. Poppy determines to change all this and applies for a job at the local scythe works - to the horror of her aunts. As Poppy learns to survive, she is tormented by many unanswered questions. Why had her father rejected Dale House? Why had he never mentioned his sisters or the past? And what could have happened between her aunts and Frederick Kenton, her new boss, that could cause them so much anguish every time his name, or the scythe works, is mentioned?

When Edward Price-Carpenter arrives in Wyford, Essex, he immediately catches Cassie Jordan's eye. Handsome and persuasive, the young man has come to oversee work on his father's racing yacht, and takes lodgings in the Falcon Inn where Cassie lives with her family. As romance blossoms between them, Cassie finds herself torn between the man she loves and Luke Turnbull, a childhood friend whom she is destined to marry. Though she raises a family with Luke and lives an outwardly happy life, inside Cassie is tormented by thoughts of her lost love Edward and longs for a way to be reunited with him. When tragedy strikes, will Cassie finally learn where her true affections lie?

For Abigail Chiswell, the Colne river front in Colchester, Essex is a second home. With its own sights and sounds - of crowded quaysides, fishing smacks and packed oyster barrels - it means more to her than all the lofty rooms and comforts of her father's home. When she falls for local fisherman Matthew Bateman, Abigail's family loyalty is stretched to breaking point. While Hiltop House represents the pinnacle of her father's wealth and success, for Abigail its very luxury keeps her from the life - and the man - she loves. She followed her heart and gave up a life of luxury. Will she find a way to thrive in the new and unfamiliar world she's facing?