When Ethan Postlethwaite, his wife Grace and their daughter Amy announce that they will be leaving the family home in the Yorkshire Dales, Grace's parents are heartbroken. Ethan has always struggled to fit into the family and now they feel he is stealing their daughter away. With the hope of a new life prospecting gold in the wilds of Canada, the young family say goodbye and set sail across the Atlantic in search of a brighter future.