In 1869, the people of the Upper Ribble Valley enjoy a simple and quiet life, farming within this remote Yorkshire dale - that is until the navvies arrive. Thousands of manual labourers and their families are housed in the makeshift camp of Batty Green while they work to construct the Settle-Carlisle railway, and upon their arrival it is clear that farm life will never be the same again.
The residents of Batty Green drink excessively and brawl frequently and for the local farmer's wife, Emily Wright, this raw energy is startling. She is unnerved by their arrival and the disturbance they bring with them. The frustration of her own difficult marriage reaches a crescendo that draws her closer and closer to the disorganised and liberated lives of some of those that live at Batty Green. However, Emily knows that when the construction work has been completed, Batty Green will be dismantled and the equilibrium of farm life will be restored. Does Batty Green bring the fulfillment she yearned for? Has too much changed to go back to the simple life of farming?