A dream rides by

In August 1883, the first steam train on the new Princetown branch line makes its triumphant passage across Dartmoor. For Ling Southcott and her young sister, Fanny, this is a momentous event, for the railway will make the outside world accessible. Ling's future looks ready-mapped, but her sharp, enquiring mind leads her to higher aspirations. When she is injured on the railway, she is rescued by a handsome young doctor, Elliott Franfield, and this encounter with a man of education - so different from her dear but unambitious childhood sweetheart, Barney - is to alter the course of her life forever.