The novel centres on Rose, whose family’s fate now rests on her shoulders. The family is in crisis:

Rose is harbouring a terrible secret, one too fearful to share even with her strict father. She’s terrified of asking him for help.

Her brother is facing a dire situation — possibly the hangman’s noose (i.e., capital punishment) — and Rose commits herself to saving him at whatever cost.

Meanwhile, Rose’s sister, Cora, is heading onto a different kind of ruin: she becomes enamoured with a “handsome cad” whose intentions are far less than gallant.

Their father, upon discovering that his children have disgraced the family name, turns them out onto the streets. So Rose and Cora find themselves penniless, homeless, and desperate.

Rose must act: rescue her brother from the noose, protect her sister from destruction, and do so while she has nothing to lean on. She may risk everything—including her own safety—to keep her family alive and intact.