Warwickshire, 1865. Nessie Carson will do anything to keep her family together after her mother is killed, her father abandons them and they are evicted from their cosy little Nuneaton home. She and her brothers and sisters take on jobs as live-in assistants to a local undertaker. She is soon entwined in the fortunes of her employer, Andre, who is forced to live a lie, and the local doctor - someone she's attracted to but can never have. But even in the darkest of times, and saddest of places, when you're as spirited as Nessie Carson, there is light, love and the promise of happiness if you're only brave enough to search for it.