Shocked beyond measure at her wrongful arrest and imprisonment, Phoebe Pardoe finds it hard to adjust to the harsh cruelty of life in the infamous Handsworth Prison. Physically abused and beaten, she struggles to maintain her unconquered spirit, not knowing that her detention was the work of her jealous Aunt Annie. But Phoebe has a guardian angel in the form of Sir William Dartmouth who eventually engineers her release. Despite being free, Phoebe must continue to fight, struggling to make a living for herself in the face of prejudices and forge her own path in the male dominated business world. And Aunt Annie has not given up her perverse quest for revenge...In the grand, gritty tradition of Josephine Cox and Catherine Cookson, Meg Hutchinson gives us the dramatic saga of a woman wronged, who rises above adversity to grasp happiness and freedom at last.