In the cold world of Manchester in 1905, the Sandberg family find the good things of life scarce, and the hardships bitter as the chill northern wind Sarah, the mother, is a born survivor stranded in a strange land by the vicious tides of persecution David, the eldest son, grows up torn between the clear-cut lines of duty and his own driving ambition Through the Great War and the Depression, the Sandbergs reach out for the bitter and sweet of life, the almonds and the raisins