Money is short in their little house in Blackburn, and Ruby yearns to give her beloved family a better life. Determined to enjoy the security only wealth can bring, she stifles her feelings for young men, and works as a maid for Mr. Banks and his daughter, Cicely. When she finally finds work in a milliner's shop, and takes over the business, she learns that worldly success still leaves an emptiness that riches cannot fill, and that the love of family and friends is beyond price.