When young Pandora Crumbe's mother dies suddenly at the luncheon table, Pandora falls into the care of Lady Mariana Morningquest and finds herself taking on an essential role in her new family. Pandora blossoms into maturity just as the lives of the Morningquests start to fall apart. As her life moves with theirs from rural England to swinging 1960s' London, a Northern University, and finally to communist Prague, she uncovers scandals, tragedy, her own mother’s secrets, and finally the way to realise her own dreams.