Coketown, a fictional town in northern England in the mid-19th century: factories pop up like mushrooms, chimneys reach for the sky, people flock from the countryside to the cities. Technological developments are not only changing the cityscape, but also people’s minds. The machine becomes the ideal. This is also the case in the Gradgrind household. Under their father’s strict guidance, Louisa and Tom learn to organize their lives according to facts, while feelings and imagination have no place. Humanity is not on the curriculum. The rigid social order begins to crumble, however, when Louisa is forced into a cold marriage of convenience and Tom, moved by inner emptiness, makes a momentous decision that triggers a web of lies and intrigue. And the city? It pulsates to the rhythm of the machines, while the factory workers rebel against injustice and social inequality.