Eighteen-year-old Philippa Palfrey, adopted as a child, believes herself to be the motherless, illegitimate daughter of an aristocratic father. When she exercises her right to find out the truth, she is shocked to discover her birth mother is very much alive—and about to be released from prison. Philippa soon enters a new and terrifying world, and comes to realize that she is not the only one interested in her parents' whereabouts.