Anna-Marie Pauper prides herself on being perfectly practical in every way. Until one day, she isn't.
An orphan with an interest in tinkering finds herself grown into a thief and a spy and she wants out. She wants more than to do what she is told in order to keep a comfortable life. She wants more than to exist in the world without really connecting to anyone beyond the opportunities to betray them. And she doesn't want to watch other young girls be pushed headlong into the same fate with no prospects, no choices.
When his supply of orphan girls from London begins to run low, Uncle Ernest wants to know why.
So does Anna-Marie.
She enlists the help of The Procurer, a crime lord known to be able to find anyone or anything, to find the founder of the orphan house she grew up in and the disappearing girls in the city.
But when the founder is dead and an impromptu rescue of many of the missing girls puts a target on her back, she finds herself fleeing London on the airship of the very man who The Procurer said was the heir and new owner of the orphan house, the man she hoped could solve at least some of her problems, and headed straight back to the home of Uncle Ernest to place the girls at his mercy.
Instead, he and his exuberant thirst for life and adventure coupled with his solicitous care of her and the girls adds even more complications to her life and she finds herself thinking thoughts that are not practical at all. Thoughts of freedom. Happiness.
Will a deal struck with Uncle Ernest be the solution?
Can she do one more job, steal one more thing, and finally be free?
Or will her departure from her staid, practical self prove to be her undoing, after all?
