Shocked beyond measure at her wrongful arrest and imprisonment, and little dreaming that it is the work of her jealous Aunt Annie, Phoebe finds it hard to adjust to the harsh cruelty of life in the infamous Handsworth Prison. She has a guardian angel in the form of Sir William Dartmouth, but even when he engineers her release, Phoebe must struggle to make a living for herself. And Annie has not given up her own perverse quest for revenge . . .