When in 1885 their businessman father dies suddenly, leaving his family in dire financial straits, it seems that sisters Charlotte and Victoria have little choice but to accept the support offered by their authoritarian Uncle Edward. But their mother has other ideas and, defying convention, she chooses to provide her daughters with careers.
But the girls have a price to pay for their independence: they have severely compromised their marriageability. Vicky’s reckless attempts at romance end in disaster whilst Charlotte, outwardly more content with her lot, suffers behind the walls of her self-control, silently repressing her need for a man’s love and enduring the fact that although she would have loved to have a child, she never will.
