Essie can tell from the moment she lays eyes on Harriet Abbott: this
is a woman who has taken a wrong turn in life. Why else would an
educated, well-dressed, clearly upper-crust girl end up in the
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory setting sleeves for six dollars a day? But Harriet
isn't the only one who is lost. Essie wanders between the opposing emotions
of her love for the young would-be lawyer who lives next door and
her hatred for her mother who seems determined to take away every bit
of happiness that Essie hopes to find. As the unlikely friendship between
Essie and Harriet grows, so does the weight of the question hanging
between them: Who is lost? And who will be found?


This is a powerful novel about friendship, loss, and the resiliency of the
human spirit, set against the backdrop of the teeming crows and scrappy
landscape of the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the early 1900s.