Rainbow Rainbow tells the story of three generations of the Hurd family, a dynasty of farmers and craftsmen who live in the east Midlands of England, on the borders of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The book spans a period of roughly 65 years from the 1840s to 1905, and shows how the love relationships of the Hurds change against the backdrop of the increasing industrialisation of Britain. The first central character, Tom Hurd, is a farmer whose experience of the world does not stretch beyond these two counties; while the last, Ursula, his granddaughter, studies at university and becomes a teacher in the progressively urbanised, capitalist and industrial world. The book starts with a description of the Hurd dynasty, then deals with how Tom Hurd, one of several brothers, fell in love with a Polish refugee and widow, Thora. The next part of the book deals with Thora's daughter by her first husband, Anya, and her destructive, battle riven relationship with her husband, Will, the son of one of Tom's brothers. The last and most extended part of the book, and also probably the most famous, then deals with Will and Anya's daughter, Ursula, and her struggle to find fulfilment for her passionate, spiritual and sensual nature against the confines of the increasingly materialist and conformist society around her. She experiences a same sex relationship with a teacher, and a passionate but ultimately doomed love affair with Anton Voichek, a British soldier of Polish ancestry.