The author, a journalist, revisits his roots in the East Midlands and a village which was once the heart of a flourishing coal mining industry. He uncovers the story of Godkin, a dilapidated country house with a tenanted farm where two spinsters, Victoria, the landowner, and Lottie, her servant, eke out a frugal living. However, the estate had a hidden treasure, and the lives of the two women are changed by an extraordinary windfall. This would change their lives and that of the local community in an unimaginable way.