1934: Connie Burroughs loves living in the orphanage that her father runs in the English countryside. Exploring its nooks and crannies with her sister, hearing the pounding of a hundred pairs of feet on the wooden stairs, having a father who is doing so much good. But everything changes the day she sees him carrying a newborn baby that he says he found near the broken front gate. A baby she recognizes . . .

Present Day: Arriving at her father's beloved cottage beside the Thames, Sarah Jennings is hoping for peace and quiet, and an escape from her difficult divorce. But when she finds her father unwell and poring over boxes of files on the orphanage where he was abandoned as a child, she decides to investigate his elusive past herself.

The only person left alive who lived at Cedar Hall when Sarah's father was there is Connie Burroughs, but Connie sits quietly in her nursing home for a reason. The sewing box under Connie's bed hides secrets that will change Sarah's life forever, uncovering a connection between the two women that has darker consequences than she could ever imagine.

A heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting tale inspired by the lives of the children who lived at the author's great-grandfather's orphanage