Convicted murderer Grace Marks claims she has no memory of the events surrounding the murder.

Grace, forced out onto the streets of Toronto by her father to search for work, secures a position as a maid in the Parkinson household. She forms a friendship with another servant, the free-spirited Mary Whitney.

Mary Whitney, pregnant by the elder Parkinson son, dies after a botched abortion. Grace accepts a new position at the Kinnear household in Richmond Hill.