Grace Ellis is the envy of her schoolmates. While they are struggling in rural poverty in Lancashire, her father owns a shop and her mother strives for respectability. Grace is raised to believe that she's something special. But after her mother's ruthless action, the family disintegrates and Grace is reduced to the penury her parents worked so desperately to escape.
Somebody is watching over her, however. An anonymous benefactor arranges to fund Grace's education, enabling her to build her own cosmetics empire through sheer determination and talent. But Grace must call upon every ounce of strength in her redoubtable character to triumph over scheming adversaries and opportunistic lovers to find a man to match her own courage.