Ella Hathaway recalls little of her life before the workhouse, although she does remember someone whispering, Dearie, promise you will never forget what you saw. Your Ma was killed deliberate and someone oughter pay for it. When young, wealthy spinster Letitia Fairchild witnesses Ella being beaten, she takes the girl into her charge as a maid. As Ella grows up, the bond between the two women grows stronger, and they embark on a quest for Ella's mysterious past. From the miseries of life in a London workhouse, to the splendour of a beautiful mansion, Ella searches for more than what happened to her mother, but for that which has always been denied to her: love, family, and a home.