With Ann Walker's mental health in an alarming downward spiral - and her overprotective relatives watching over her – Anne Lister is forced to contemplate travelling alone, despite her family's warnings that to do so would raise eyebrows. Meanwhile, Anne reopens her coal-mine negotiations with the Rawson brothers, and Thomas Sowden's secret casts a cloud over his budding relationship with Suzannah Washington.

Before setting off for Europe to escape the heartache of her doomed relationship with Ann Walker, Anne invites Christopher Rawson to Shibden to rebuke him for publicly insulting Marian. Undeterred by his warnings that her accusations will have dangerous repercussions, Anne comes up with a bold, reckless strategy to finally sink her own pit and expose the Rawsons' industrial-scale theft of her coal.