Lena Phillips has everything she could want: a father who adores her, a mother who spends hours reading to her, a nursery full of the most wonderful toys. Lena even has Sally Goodman, a doting governess. Lena is only four years old, and she's the happiest little girl in the whole wide world. As Christmas approaches, Lena grows more and more excited - unaware that a dark plot is brewing, and she will be caught in its tendrils.

Governess Sally Goodman has a dark secret, and Ella - a parlor-maid who's gained Sally's trust - is determined to exploit that weakness. Influenced by her criminal brothers, Ella persuades Sally to leave Lena in her care for an afternoon just before Christmas. What happens next changes Lena's life forever.

Sold to a cruel couple in the slums of Victorian London, Lena is plunged into a world of begging, stealing, starving, and abuse. Lena's family searches in vain for her, and finally in despair, they give up.

Every Christmas that follows is progressively colder and more hopeless than the first. Lena loses hope that anyone will want her - except a boy with sad grey eyes. A boy who needs her as much as she needs him....