The Sanford family are dogged by misfortune. Callista Sanford's father was well educated but ended up working in a steel foundry, before mysteriously taking his own life. Callista is left struggling to support herself and her ailing mother. Regular employment eludes her, and her pride will not let her accept charity. Instead she is reluctantly betrothed to the boorish rent collector, Oswin Slade, who seeks to advance himself by defrauding and then blackmailing his employer, the sinister Mrs Derry. But she is more than a match for him, as he finds out to his cost. Everything starts to change for Callista when she meets kindly Daniel and Abigail Roberts, who have known tragedy too. They offer her employment and a home and, under their tuition, she discovers an artistic flair she didn't know she had. But a happy ending is not certain because an unseen enemy lurks in the shadows, determined to see the demise of the pauper's child.