John Galsworthy

Set in turn-of-the-century England, a young lawyer from London, Frank Ashton , is on a hiking tour of the rural Dartmoor countryside. He twists his ankle jumping a fence, and is helped to a nearby farm by a girl working in the fields. Megan David lives at the farm with her adopted aunt, Mrs Narracombe, and is betrothed to her eldest son Joe. Frank has made quite an impression on Megan, which is making Joe madly jealous. As the attraction between Megan and Frank becomes more overpowering, they decide they must never be parted. However, Frank is asked to leave. He leaves for a seaside town, where by chance he meets an old school friend, Phil and his sister Stella. Frank arranged to return to Megan by train, but his plans get muddled. Megan sits and waits for him with all her possessions in one bag. No longer able to wait, she decides to go and look for Frank herself.

Megan is a pretty country girl who falls in love with Ashton, an attorney from London, while he is hiking near her farm in the countryside. Ashton remains in the countryside while he heals his broken ankle.

Megan is a pretty country girl who falls in love with Ashton, an attorney from London, while he is hiking near her farm in the countryside. Ashton remains in the countryside while he heals his broken ankle. Promising to return, Ashton leaves Megan and visits an old school friend in Torquay. The procrastinating barrister falls for his friend's sister Stella (Sophie Ward) and forgets about his promise to Megan. When she travels to Torquay to locate the man she loves, the spineless Ashton cowers behind closed shutters instead of facing the brokenhearted Megan.

The British countryside turns into a ideological battlefield when Hornblower, a wealthy self-made tradesman, stakes his claim to a piece of valuable forest property controlled for literally centuries by the "landed gentry.