Mary Barton has a choice to make: either protect a member of her family or sit back and watch a terrible miscarriage of justice. Will she make the right decision in time?Elizabeth Gaskell was born in the south of England, but became a strong advocate for the (mainly northern) working classes, and the trials and tribulations they faced daily in the factories and mills during the time of the Industrial Revolution. She was an active Unitarian, and her religious beliefs were very important to her, giving her a strong set of morals and sense of justice, which feature strongly in her stories.