The Corn Is Green

1895. The residents of the rural coal mining village of Glansarno, Wales are surprised not only that the new resident from London, L.C. Moffatt, M.A., is not Lieutenant-Colonel Moffatt as they expected him to be, but rather independently-minded, financially self-sufficient and well-educated spinster Lilly Cristobel Moffatt, Master of Arts, such a woman who is extraordinary for the area. When Miss Moffatt learns that the majority of the children of the area are poor and illiterate - the boys being sent to work in the mines as early as age twelve to help provide for their families - she decides that she is going to use her money to open a school, she even willing to pay the families the money for the wages no longer earned by the boys. Despite their initial opposition in dealing with a woman like her, Miss Moffatt is able to co-opt the assistance of two somewhat educated locals, Mr. Jones and Miss Ronberry, to help her run the school, she sensing their own dissatisfaction with their current lot in life in Glansarno. What Miss Moffatt does not expect is the extent of the opposition to the school by the mine officials, led by Mr. Trevorby, a local squire with a vested interest in the mine operation, who believe that education is useless for the boys and the school is taking away their workforce. She considers throwing in the towel in her fight with the mine until she reads a short essay written by one of the older students, Morgan Evans, who, despite the technical problems with the piece, she sees as a boy who truly has deep thoughts and would truly benefit from an education. Morgan and Miss Moffatt's relationship is not always a smooth one, as Morgan sometimes has to reconcile this education against what he sees as his destiny of going back to the mines, while Miss Moffatt eventually sees higher education as his new destiny, something that would require him to obtain a scholarship. But the biggest threat to Morgan's future in academia and the existence of the school altogether is Bessie Watty, the opportunistic daughter of Miss Moffatt's Cockney housekeeper from London, reformed Mrs. Watty who even admits that she does not like her daughter despite her own criminal past.