 Rhys Lewis is the younger son in a poor family where the father is absent and the only source of income is what his older brother, Bob, earns as a coal miner.Much of this income is creamed off by Uncle James, a poacher and a very violent man who visits the family regularly though he is never welcome.His mother, Mari Lewis, is a devout member of the Calvinistic Methodists and seeks to bring her two boys up in the same faith.