This is a story about the development of a Fenland community in the nineteenth century; a community made up of disparate individuals, coming together through shared experiences of life and death, of hardship and celebration, of achievement and disappointment. It is a story of a parish priest finding fulfilment, a labourer who discovers a utopian promise, a philanthropist whose ambition is thwarted by deceit, a miller whose priorities are suddenly redefined. This Fenland community is sensitively and sympathetically guided by a newspaper man with honour and integrity. The story is told, above all, on the canvas of huge Fenland skies, vast marshy wastelands and the ever-present challenge of wind, rain, sun and ice.