Publisher's Synopsis
In an English orphanage, an innocent, young foundling called Ivy was mistreated daily and made so unhappy by a woman called Mother, until she met an angel, a young girl named Lottie who took her under her wing and made her life more bearable. One day Ivy was chosen by a reverend and his wife to be adopted. She left the orphanage and moved to a place called Whitechapel. Ivy soon discovers that the reverend was a false disciple; he did not adhere to his own teaching of the gospel to his congregation. She meets Pig, a young mudlark, who takes her to the Penny Gaff to meet the Elephant man. A man called Charles takes a job as their gardener, but soon becomes her protector.
Lottie is visited by a brother and he tells of the family hardships and that there was no home to go back to and also that their twin brothers were missing and presumed dead. She takes a job as a seamstress to an actress and moves to a fine house owned by an eminent doctor in the parish of Epping, where she meets Richard, the son, and becomes infatuated. When on a shopping trip to Whitechapel with her mistress, a man believed to be her brother calls on the house looking for her and was told she was in Whitechapel. Believing it could be one of her brothers, she goes back there to look for him. She searches the taverns, amongst the down-and-outs, and the whores, but just finds the poor; the pick-pockets and the monster Jack the Ripper.
