The Wormdigger's Daughter is the heartbreaking story of a family on the run. It is a tale of tragic resonance, which depicts a universal struggle against injustice and oppression.

A young boy of twelve huddles in a roadside tent in the midst of a bitter Irish winter and is told an extraordinary tale by the frail and elderly Molly and her husband Frank. The couple had been working on a large estate in Meath where the hardship of their life had already claimed the lives of their three young sons. Their remaining child, Angel, was the focus of all their love and hope for the future. On overhearing a friend of the master of the estate lay claim to their daughter they left secretly in the dead of night, but were then falsely accused of stealing and forced to become fugitives. They disguised Angel as a boy to maintain their cover and found help from sympathetic farmers along the road.

Their lives were governed by the terror of being discovered and arrested, and above all, by their fear of what would happen to their daughter if she had to return to the estate.

Their only hope lay with some influential Americans who befriended them and offered them the possibility of escape - but at a terrible price.