It is 1817, and on the streets of Amlwch, the copper capital of the world, discontent amongst the poor, the hungry and the disaffected is about the break out into open violence. Mine Superintendent, Thomas Kendrick, brings his bride, the beautiful Cornish girl, Alys, twenty years his junior, home to Amlwch. The arrival of the Irish sea captain, William O Donnell, and his friendship with Kendrick, sets off an intrigue of love, jealosy, treachery, balckmail...