The story of Thomas the Squire of High Banks Hall, who wasted his fortune and fathered many illegitimate children, each marked with a flash of snowy white hair.
The Squire of High Banks Hall has to move to a cottage with his two wards, Barbara and Constance. The Squire's two bastards become regular visitors there and eventually Constance agrees to marry Donald. Then one night Barbara is savagely raped.
Before the late Squire Thomas Mallen killed himself, he left a trail of illegitimate children all over the hills of 19th Century Northumberland. One of them, Miss Barbara, is deaf and has been kept from the truth by her governess. Now a beautiful and wilful young woman, she falls in love with her cousin, Michael, whose mother is also obsessed with keeping him ignorant of his own illegitimacy.
Barbara has been rejected by her cousin, Michael, and enters into a loveless marriage with Dan whose family, the Benshams, have owned the Hall since her father, Squire Mallen, went bankrupt. The widowed Mr. Bensham proposes to Anna Brigmore, fulfilling her ruthless ambition to be mistress of High Banks. But their happiness is soon shattered when they discover that Barbara and Michael have become lovers again.