When Mary Bowes' mother dies, it seems that things cannot get any worse. But then she discovers a devastating secret that her father has kept hidden all these years, and her world is thrown into turmoil. And so when she is told that she must marry a man forty years her senior, she has no option but to leave and fend for herself. But she is forgetting the dangers lurking around every corner. For this is the Yorkshire of the Industrial Revolution and everyone's got something to hide -- there are people out looking for her, and it's only a matter of time before she is found. It is only after an appalling event that shatters Mary completely that she comes into contact with the wealthy Fitzkeppel family. But that has complications of its own, especially when her father and brother re-enter her life...