The year is 1866. Maggie Tanner is a young girl born to an impoverished family in the slums of London. As a child she witnesses her grandmother's death and her mother giving birth to stillborn twins. With her father's constant insobriety and lack of employment it seems they are all destined for the workhouse.Acquiring a position as a servant to a middle class family in the suburbs, Maggie encounters only further turmoil by falling pregnant to the family's eldest son. She returns home only to be plunged into the social stigma of bastardy and shame.Maggie does all she can to save her baby from a disease-ridden orphanage and takes drastic decisions to save both the child and herself, but when her pain and loss continues to haunt her for years to come, one unexpected day, one last gift changes everything.