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 Living in a squalid cellar room in Stew Lane, eighteen-year-old
Clemency Skinner picks pockets in order to keep her crippled brother, Jack, and
her alcoholic mother from starvation.
One cold winter’s day, her prey turns on her and she is caught by Jared Stone, who
offers her the chance to become a professional thief. She turns him down, but fate
throws her in the path of Augustus Throop and his band of strolling players.
When he discovers that Clemency has the voice of a nightingale he is only too eager
to take her into his group of buskers, much to the annoyance of his jealous daughter,
Lucilla. Desperate to get their mother from the clutches of Todd Harman, her ruthless
pimp, Clemency and Jack take her with them to the cheap boarding house in Whitechapel
where Augustus and his troupe have lodgings.
Despite his physical disability, Jack is a talented musician, and soon the brother
and sister form part of the travelling players.
Clemency’s talent is spotted and she
finds herself understudying Dorabella Darling,
the star of the opera bouffe.
But Jared Stone has other plans for Clemency and Todd Harman is set on revenge …
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