Rosa

Evicted from the slums of Gateshead in north-eastern England, Rosa and her family travel to Newcastle where they are reluctantly taken in by her mother’s estranged sister.  Doris Graham is soon to regret this act of kindness as she sees her beautiful home destroyed by the Fenwick family – apart from Rosa, Nancy Fenwick’s illegitimate daughter. Rosa does her best to keep the family under control while dreaming of being a ‘lady’ and living in the big mansion house she can see from her attic bedroom window. Her dreams become more and more obsessive when she meets the son of the new owners of Orchard House and, hardly more than a child, she falls deeply in love with him. For Richard’s part, his obsession is with the fact that in the mansion is a portrait of a beautiful Italian woman who bears a remarkable resemblance to Rosa. As time passes and Rosa grows into a voluptuous young woman, Richard’s innate snobbishness fades – until he finds her being raped by a lodger of her alcoholic mother. Rosa’s heart is broken, but she never gives up her dream of owning Orchard House and her life takes many twists and turns before her dream is realized. And then, one day, she finds Richard back in her life, but the tables have turned...