Sold a small plot of land for a tiny outlay, Cockney widow Chloe Marsh and her two daughters flee the slums of post-war London for a better life in the country. But rural life in 1922 is hard. Chloe and her fellow pioneers have no mains water, no gas, no electricity and no jobs. Forced to live in tents until they can afford a shack, they carve a community out of the hostile countryside.