Where the Heart Should Be

In 1846, Nell begins working as a scullery maid at Lord Wicken’s Big House in the fictional Irish village of Ballinkeel. When crop blight leaves her tenant-farmer father’s potatoes black and inedible, her small wages become the family’s only income. While families around her struggle to survive, Wicken is stockpiling food to sell overseas. Nell forms a connection with his nephew Johnny through their shared interest in poetry, though their unequal social positions make a relationship difficult.