Ireland, 1846. Once Nell loved school and books and dreaming. Now, she is working as a scullery maid in the kitchen of Sir Philip Wicken, the man who owns her home, her family’s land, their crops, everything. Upstairs in the Big House is Johnny Browning, newly arrived from England: the young nephew who will one day inherit it all. And as hunger and disease run rampant all around them, a spark of life and hope catches light when Nell and Johnny find each other.
