Publisher's Synopsis
It is 1860 in Bilsden, the Lancashire mill town, and Frederick Hallam is dying, having made secret plans to smooth the future path for his beloved wife Annie. Her sister Joanie has a new admirer, but a spurned suitor is determined that Joanie will be his, whatever the cost. Meanwhile the Civil War in America cuts off cotton supplies, bringing unemployment to Bilsden, so Annie plans to create Spinner's Lake, to keep her workers from destitution and assuage her own grief. Then Tian Gilchrist returns from the American war to Bilsden, and to Annie - who he has never forgotten...
