Set in Victorian-era London of 1887, Hetty and her foster brother Gideon are forced to return to the foundling hospital where she was abandoned by her mother as a baby. Hetty and her friends hate the iron-fist regime of Matron Bottomly and gang leader Sheila. Hetty yearns to escape and go in search of her mother.

Hetty is shocked at the brisk way in which baby Hazel Didcott is received from her mother for reception at the orphanage, the more so when she learns Hazel's name will be changed - although she is told why it is necessary. She plans to send Hazel to Peg and Jem, who know more about her birth mother and when bad boys Vi…