 Rhys is apprenticed to Abel Hughes, an elder in the chapel who owns a drapers shop, and moves into Abel's house when his mother dies a short time afterwards.As he grows into adolescence, he falls away from the devout faith that his mother taught him whilst nurturing a secret desire to be a preacher, being dazzled by the status that preachers had in Welsh society at the time.His best friend, Wil Bryan, leads him further and further astray until an incident where they very nearly kill a man brings Rhys to a crisis of conscience.