David’s gang partake in their first mission, focused on the rent-seeking, exploitative Clothier. David also aims to make amends with Grace, the 'jilted' love of his life.
After finding his community destitute, David introduces his kin to ‘clipping’ – the illegal forging of coins and David’s scheme to bring back dignity and security to his people.
West Yorkshire, early 1760s. David Hartley is returning to his family’s remote moor-top dwelling after seven years away in Birmingham. Gravely wounded and dragging a mysterious bag of tools, he receives help from six mythical stag-men, who let him know that his work on earth isn’t done yet.
Set against the backdrop of the coming industrial revolution in eighteenth century Yorkshire, the drama follows David Hartley as he assembles a gang of weavers and land-workers to embark upon a revolutionary criminal enterprise that will capsize the economy and become the biggest fraud in British history.