A Different Kind of Dream — Geraldine O'Neill

Raven-haired Kate Flowers lives on the banks of the canal in Ballygrace, looking after widowed mother, Mary, and undependable brother, Brendan, who works on the barges. Life starts to change when Kate meets handsome boatman, Michael O'Brien, and she casts aside her dreams of nursing, for the conventional path of marriage and motherhood. But trouble looms when Mary visits sister, Rose, in Stockport and re-discovers her forgotten youth and finds a new interest in men.

When the canal barges are threatened, Brendan is torn between emigration and his secret love for the daughter of a volatile neighbour. Then suddenly, the family's life is shattered when a tragedy occurs, leaving all three in circumstances they could never have imagined.

The Flowers family are forced to rebuild their lives in new surroundings that will test them, and give them the courage to bloom once again.