“Just another reason to leave this rotten, uncaring city behind.â€
Three years after the Ebonson family’s fall from grace and Gertrude Ebonson has become what no woman wants to be. As a fallen woman, she trades the only thing she has left to survive the cold winters. Penniless and isolated from her friends, she contemplates the end of her life.
Meanwhile, Theodore Norlong lives under the iron fist of his abusive aristocratic father. Forced into a loveless marriage, Theodore must put his feelings for Gertrude aside. Under the threat of being condemned to an asylum, Theodore tows the line. But when an opportunity to escape appears, he decides to take one last chance.
Only Edward Urwin sees a way out, in the form of the most beautiful woman he has ever seen; Eleanor Salisbury. But with the brutal orphanage owner Dr. Jacob Thorne and his increasingly distant boss Victor Kennelworth determined to hold him back, it seems the three friends will never be reunited…