is broken with grief. Still mourning her mother's death, she is also weighed down by fear for her brother Frederick, who is living in exile, and her father's unstable health. But topping all her concerns is handsome mill owner John Thornton, whose rash marriage proposal she had rejected before even considering. Not that there is any point in thinking of him now. He wouldn't have anything to do with her, even if she were the last woman in the world.