Can her family ever be reunited?

Magda Brodie's world is torn apart when her mother dies in the workhouse two weeks before Christmas. Her wastrel father arranges for her sisters to be sent to their grandparents, her brother to be adopted, and Magda to live with her Aunt Bridget.

But her aunt holds a bitter resentment towards her, and Magda's dreams of reuniting her family seem hopeless...