It is January 1880. Dundee is mourning the collapse of the new Tay Railway Bridge and the many lives lost, including that of Sarah, wife of Andrew Mason, jute mill owner and reluctant director of the failed bridge project. Andrew is also mourning the loss of his illicit love, Beth Grant, who turns away from him in the aftermath of the tragedy. Depressed, he looks to changing his life by buying a mill in Calcutta, a growing source of Dundee's jute, and travelling to India with his small son at the end of 1880. There he struggles to cope with the mores of the Britsh Raj: finds new friends and a new love, and encounters familiar obstacles to his philanthropic intentions in the Scotia Jute Mill.