The fortunes and fates of five generations of an Anglo-Irish family are bound to their copper mine on Hungry Hill. Beginning with the first stubborn patriarch, O'Brien brings each of the many characters vividly to life--that gruff patriarch; the forthright first-born son; the petulant, lazy second-born; and so on. This is an old-fashioned, slow-paced tale--not on a par with du Maurier's more famous books, such as REBECCA and JAMAICA INN