A powerful adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's feisty and passionate love story, set across the social divides in the changing world of Victorian industrial society. Margaret Hale is one of literature's most original heroines, a southerner from a country vicarage newly settled in the industrial northern town of Milton. In the shock of her move, she misjudges charismatic cotton mill-owner John Thornton, whose strength of purpose and passion are a match for her own pride and wilfulness. When the workers of Milton call a strike, Margaret takes their side, and the two are brought into deeper conflict.