사진관 조수인 윌리는 사진과 영화에 대한 열정으로 가득하다. 욕심 많은 주인 밑에서 몰래 사진 작업을 하던 윌리는 헬레나오 만나게 된다. 헬레나와 결혼한 윌리는 직접 사진관을 운영하게 된다. 하지만 사실, 윌리의 관심은 오직 활동 사진의 발명 뿐이었다. 결국 가장으로서도 사업가로서도 실패한 윌리는 자기 연구실에서 묻혀 지낸다. 경제적으로도 파산하고 아내 헬레나는 병에 걸려 죽어가지만 윌리는 활동사진의 발명에만 몰두한다.
In the 1830's in northern England, Riah Millican, a widow with three children, takes a job as housekeeper to a reclusive former teacher, Percival Miller. Miller makes Riah the gift of a black velvet gown, and even educates her children. But when Riah discovers the reason behind Miller's gifts, she vows to leave his house, but Miller has a hold on her, even after his death, when he leaves his house to her on the condition that she never marry. Riah's daughter, Biddy, grows up and becomes a laundress in a large house where her education keeps her from fitting in and makes her a target. But it also catches the eye of a son of the house, and with Miller's legacies, Biddy may yet find her way to happiness.
This 1940s drama presents a story of class conflict and its influence on romance. Robert Bradley leaves the shipyards to work in his uncle's furniture business but soon finds himself at odds with the old man. So he becomes a servant for the destructive Thormans, and falls for the lady of the house, Sarah. But in 1913 this upstairs/downstairs romance can only lead to disaster.
Abel Mason is a man caught in a loveless marriage with a harridan wife who constantly berates him and beats their son Dick. When the one woman he loves dies at the hands of her husband after he was sent a letter by Mason's wife, exposing the affair, Abel leaves her for good taking to the road and young Dick with him.
Adaptation of Catherine Cookson's novel. In mid-19th century Yorkshire, Hannah Boyle is left with the family of Matthew Thornton, the man her dying mother claims fathered her. Ill-treated by Thornton's bitter and vindictive wife Anne, who views Hannah only as evidence of her husband's infidelity, she is married off to the village butcher, whose waspish mother torments her further. But through her patience, intelligence and strength, she wins her freedom and the man she loves.
