Set in the Oxfordshire countryside at the end of the 19th Century, this rich, funny and emotional series follows the daily lives of farm-workers, craftsmen and gentry in two contrasting communities: Lark Rise, the small hamlet, gently holding on to the past and Candleford, the neighbouring market town, bustling into the future.

When the young Laura Timmins leaves Lark Rise for a job at the local post office in Candleford, it feels as if she is departing to a different country. Her new life under the wing of the independent and effervescent post-mistress, Dorcas Lane, is eye-opening and exciting, but as Laura witnesses the scandals, feuds and struggles of the villagers and townsfolk, she realises that she too has to face the future. Having turned her back on her childhood hamlet, she must find her own path to womanhood...