In this heart-warming and emotional portrait of a small cotton mill town in Lancashire, Edie Hill is essentially protrayed as a tragic heroine: she works hard all her life, raises an illegitimate son, and loses her family one by one as they fall victim to the cotton dust from years spent labouring at the mill. At the same time, however, Edie is a truly funny character, and the tragic points in her saga are interspersed with moments of great warmth and humour.