Bereft and alone after the death of her mother and newborn sister, Ginnie is pitchforked from the stark world of the London workhouse to the horror of a cotton factory. Her only friend is Frank… and then he leaves her, too. 

Ginnie Buckley adores her brave mother, so it is a cruel blow to lose both her and her baby sister in childbirth. Life is unadulterated misery, until Eliza Shaw and her brother Frank Shaw come to the workhouse. Ginnie and Eliza become friends, and life is tolerable… just.

But one day she and Frank are abruptly taken away to work for a cruel and greedy cotton factory owner in Essex. Daily, they are forced to risk their lives and limbs to keep production up and profits rising. Ginnie is always afraid, but forges an unlikely friendship with Will Gillespie, the quiet son of the owner.

When Frank decides to run away, Ginnie cannot bring herself to go with him and risk an unknown fate on the dirty and inhospitable streets of London — not without saying goodbye to Will. But the owner and the overseer, enraged at losing Frank, make life intolerable for Ginnie. A target of their spite, she is forced to do ever-more dangerous tasks — and one day, the worst happens. 

Badly injured and no longer of any use to the bullying factory owner, Ginnie is forced out onto the very streets she’d refused to risk with Frank. Now, she has no idea how she will cope. 

Then life takes an unexpected turn, and it appears that Ginnie might survive. Until Frank, now a hardened thief, reappears and threatens everything she hopes for…