She spent her life building a business empire, including the world-famous Harte's Department Store in London, as well as extensive holdings in property and oil.

Back in London, Emma learns that her two sons, Kit and Robin, are plotting to force her retirement and break up and sell off her businesses.

The story flashes back to the early 20th century when teenaged Emma worked as a servant at Fairley Hall in rural Yorkshire, along with her father, Jack, and two brothers, Winston and Frank.

When Edwin refuses to marry her, Emma's friend, Shane "Blackie" O'Neill, an Irish navvy who works at Fairley Hall, suggests she move to start a new life.

While looking for work, Emma meets Abraham Kallinski, a Jew whom she rescues from an anti-Semitic attack by local youths.

After working two jobs for a year, Emma makes enough money to rent a shop in Armley in which she sells fabrics, clothing, and luxury food goods.

Joe is killed in the Battle of the Somme and Laura, now married to Blackie, dies giving birth to a son, Bryan.

They start seeing each other and she divorces her husband after giving birth to Paul's child, a daughter they name Daisy.

The drama was produced by the British company Portman-Artemis, and was co-financed by the UK's Channel 4 and the US-based OPT Organisation (a subsidiary of MCA Television).

Producer Diane Baker (who also co-stars as Laura Spencer) first met Taylor-Bradford prior to the novel being published, whilst Taylor-Bradford was working for a newspaper in New York and was interviewing Baker (who worked predominantly as an actress at that time) for an article about interior design.

The original Armley store was a then disused row of shops in Crown Street Darlington (opposite the towns main post office).

The broadcast of the final part on 4 January drew 13.8 million viewers, which remains the channel's highest ever audience.

[4] It was shown in limited syndication in the United States several weeks before the British transmission, in order to qualify for the 1985 Primetime Emmy Award.

In February 2025, Channel 4 announced that it had commissioned a remake of A Woman of Substance, to be adapted by writers Katherine Jakeways and Roanne Bardsle.