The story deals with the birth of an illegitimate child who is slightly deformed with a curvature of the spine. The Father,Eduard Jolly a wealthy trader, refuses to accept the child and buys off the mother with ten sovereigns, heartbroken the mother moves to her sister in Manchester. Within a year Eduard Jolly snr. marries and sires another son who is christened William. The illegitimate son is christened Eduard Jolly, in the hope that in later life he may glean an inheritance. He is seven years old when his mother dies and he is sent to an orphanage. William grows up with all of the home comforts until the age of twelve years when he is accepted by the navy as a mid-shipman. Each boy suffers the strict regime they have been cast into. At the age of sixteen Eduard jnr. is a strong as any man, he falls foul of a master whom he crushes in his muscular arms and runs away to seek refuge in his aunts and uncles house. A fair comes to town and he is hired by a showman to act as a strong man. William is sent ashore in charge of a press gang to secure men. He returns to the ship with three weak and emaciated men. This causes the captain of the ship to devise a method in which William and a petty officer are sent ashore acting as though they have jumped ship to discover where the men of the village hide when the press is on shore. William becomes enamoured of Grace Fellows, landlady of the Flowing Well Inn. He and the petty officer are engaged by her to work at the inn. The petty officer is murdered by Gypsies and William absconds from the navy. The brothers lead their lives as they see fit and it is only when Eduard jnr , at the age of twenty one, goes in search of solicitors for a possible inheritance, only to discover that he has a brother two years his junior. and eventually the brothers meet.