In 1887, 21-year-old Ernest Burton leaves his parents' home in a village near Nottingham for the first time, to take up work as a journeyman blacksmith in the coalfields of South Wales. Ernest takes to the role with ease -- boldly, recklessly, fearlessly standing up to his superiors and seducing young girls. In a bid to settle down, Ernest returns home to marry his childhood sweetheart and become a master smith. A tyrannical father, he rules over his young family with an iron fist, instilling a mixture of fear and hatred in is sons and daughters. A bully, who shows no mercy, he also has effortless charm and magnetic attraction.