Within the respectable confines of young Emma Cadman's home on a quiet street in Victorian London, there exists a dark secret--a secret which eventually shatters her seem-ingly idyllic childhood and precipitates a string of nightmarish events.
A sudden death in the family and the unexpected penury that follows, force Emma and her mother to move to the home of poor relations in the industrial north. Haunted by the past they left behind, the duo must now face years of hard labour and dwindling expectations.
Eventually, fortune smiles on the mother and daughter and an oppor-tunity arises for them to start over in the countryside with a cottage of their own. Here, they find a measure of contentment. And as Emma grows into womanhood she meets a kind Scotsman whose love will perhaps help her erase the ravages of her troubled past.
