But the child who is born on the Sabbath day is bonnie and blithe and good and gay.

1884, Nuneaton Union Workhouse

Sunday Small has been in the workhouse since she was abandoned on its front steps at birth. The housemother's regime is cruel, and if it were not for the kindly Miss Beau who comes in every week to teach the inmate children their letters, and her dear little friend Daisy, Sunday's life would barely be worth living. But as Sunday grows into a comely girl, she begins to attract the unwelcome attention of the workhouse master, who will stop at nothing to get her alone and will not take no for an answer.

It's time for Sunday to strike out alone in the world. Leaving behind everything she knows, she must try to make her fortune. She's driven on by the promise she made to come back for Daisy, and her secret dream of one day being reunited with the long-lost mother who gave her away. But she's about to discover that, try to escape as she might, the brutal world of the workhouse will not let her go without a fight . . .