This work explores the story of Susan, the eldest daughter of an impoverished Sussex field laborer, Adam Spray, and his wife, Ruth. Her large family belongs to the Colgate Brethren, an unknown religious sect that takes Susan to its heart the day she states, at the age of six, that she's seen the Lord. But things change for the family's children when they are orphaned, and Susan has to figure out a way to support her siblings.