the novel tells a story of the Morgans, a poor people however respectable mining personal of the South Wales vale, through the eyes of the immature boy, Huw Morgan. Huw's academic ability sets him apart from either his sr. brothers & enables him to assume the new out of this disruptive industrial environment. His 5 brothers & his father come mineworker; fallowing a firstborn brother, Ifor, is flushed around an industrial accident, Huw moves around by using his sister-around-law, Bronwen, sustaining whom he is secretly enamored. Late, Huw's father is besides flushed in the mine. Meanwhile, one of Huw's tercet sisters, Angharad, get hitched with to the flush coal-owner,whom she didn't love & a marriage is an unhappy 1. She never overcame her hole-and-corner relationship using a local minister. A dying of Huw's father, coupled using a realisation that Bronwen has there are no romanticistic interest within him, drives him to leave a vale. inside the sequels to the novel, Huw emigrates & makes the fresh life in Patagonia.

A vastly successful 1941 film of the book had the cast which involved Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Roddy McDowall (as Huw), and Barry Fitzgerald. None of the leading players were Welsh.

A film won 5 Oscars: Academy Award for Best Picture - Darryl F. Zanuck, producer Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor - Donald Crisp Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White - Richard Day, Nathan Juran, and Thomas Little Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White - Arthur C. Miller Academy Award for Directing - John Ford It was besides nominated for some other 5 awards Best Writing, Screenplay - Philip Dunne Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress - Sara Allgood Best Cutting - James B. Clark Best Music, Scoring of the Spectacular Picture - Alfred Newman Best Healthy, Recording - Edmund H. Hansen

A 1941 film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

A book was with success adapted for television during the Seventies per BBC, with the script by Elaine Morgan. It starred Stanley Baker, Sian Phillips and Nerys Hughes.