At the age of ninety-four, Louise is left with only her memories and plenty of time to reflect on her life. She sits in her chair and her mind drifts back to 1816, when she was only seven years old. As a child, Louise knew that her mother did her best to protect the children from her father’s violent rages. She did not always succeed. And when her drunken father suddenly dies, the penniless family is cast into the streets. Taking with them only what they can carry, Louise and her mother, Clare, and her young brother, Freddy, take to the roads, seeking help and work wherever Clare might find it. Fate intervenes when Clare finds a job at the Old Manor, home to Dr. John Bower, a prominent country physician. Louise believes that life will be pleasant and secure from then on. It is, until Dr. Bower’s reprehensible cousin, Thomas, arrives, changing Louise’s world forever. Thrust into a nightmare from which there is no escape, Louise’s life spirals out of control. Sent away to boarding school, she finally returns home, an embittered and impulsive young woman. Determined to have her way in all things, her plans are suddenly and violently interrupted when she is mistaken for someone else.