1910, and Corley Roper, an eminent children's author of his age, mourns the death of his young daughter. Estranged from his wife, and wracked by grief, he happens one night upon Mary Wilson, a woman in a similar position, as she mourns her stillborn son. No longer able to inhabit the fictional world that made his name, and haunted by the spectre of this other lost child, Roper decides that it is only through engaging with the real world, and the mystery of Mary Wilson's dispossessed heritage, that he may find purpose. Meanwhile, a young American journalist, Alice Dangerfield, has travelled across the Atlantic on a quest of her own, to track down her most cherished author.