Lily Jane Wilder's safe little world is turned upside down when her parents die from the fever that has ravaged the seaside village where she lived with them. She is taken in by a wealthy bachelor uncle whom she had never met before and has to learn to adjust to the privileges his status on society brings. But he is not her only relative in the area. Unbeknownst to Lily's Uncle Nael, her father's family are workers on a farm in the vicinity. Their impoverished state is a stark contrast to Uncle Nael's wealth and Lily because determined to use her newly elevated position to help her new found family, much to her uncle's consternation.