In the 17th century, Derbyshire had unconventional and independently minded hill preachers. Through an accidental encounter up on the hills, their influence begins to make itself felt over Jim and Lucy, 21st century high school students. They are caught between the controlling behaviour of Jim's parents and the subversive influence of Lucy's family, whose forbears were also hill preachers. Jim begins to fall out of the world of tweets, texts and crowd judgements and, with Lucy, he finds himself having to address much deeper questions of personal morality, aided only by a much older set of beliefs. They elope and go on the run, an act that exposes them to becoming an on-line scandal. The authorities become involved and a pursuit of Jim, Lucy and their aged accomplices ensues from which, at the last moment, they escape, thanks to a surprising intervention that gives the two of them hope for their future and the future of nonconformity.