"In 1896, three best friends--Tirzah, Sophia and Polly--who are leading very different lives after boarding school share their dreams, hopes, frustrations and romances through a series of letters as they search for happiness and love near the dawn of the Edwardian era"--

Sophia Alexander, the beautiful daughter of a famous surgeon in Berlin, has had to grow up faster than most young women. When her mother falls ill, Sophia must take charge of her younger sister, Theresa, and look after her father and the household, while also volunteering at his hospital after school. Meanwhile, Hitler's rise to power and the violence in her very own town have Sophia concerned, but only her mother is willing to share her fears openly....