Series 1 begins in 1875, and portrays the lives and loves of the people who work, shop and trade, in and around the first English department store.[7] The owner of The Paradise department store is widower John Moray. Moray was once a draper's boy in Emersons, the small shop that grew under his managership into The Paradise, which has come to dominate the high street to the detriment of small shopkeepers nearby.